The Genesis Crisis
by Cavalier
Summary: The Sixth Day is complete. NERV come under direct attack from the enemy. Will Rei defeat the enemy? Will Shinji pilot Unit-01? Will chapter 7 ever get done?
1. Prologue

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Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

Prologue

Asuka opened her eyes. Above her was a ceiling, cold and harsh looking, although something about it seemed familiar. Asuka turned her head from side to side, noticing that her neck was very stiff, trying to survey the room she was in. 

The whole room looked cold and sterile, just like the ceiling had. She noticed a lot of mechanical equipment to her left, as they continued making regular beeping noises. She wondered what they were for. Then she realised that the equipment was hooked up to her, seeing various wires stretching from the equipment to small circular patches all over her body. In a panic she pulled the patches off her skin, worried as to what they were doing on her. The machinery besides her began making a constant noise and the odd patterns which had been repeating themselves over and over on the screen became a flat line. This noise irritated Asuka immensely, she swiped clumsily at the equipment, her weakened body was unable to do very much. Seeing this did nothing she reached over and grabbed the top of the rack of equipment, she pulled on it hard. The equipment rack hit the ground with the sound of various screens shattering and casings cracking. She breathed heavily, trying to recover from her exertion. The noise stopped, so she focused on her next move, getting out of the bed. 

She pushed herself up into a sitting position in the bed and swung her legs out of the bed. She shivered slightly as her bare feet touched the cold floor. She noticed that another tube seemed to be attached to her wrist, even more worrying to her was that it seemed to be sticking into her skin. She traced the tube back to its origin, which was a clear bag full with a clear liquid hanging from a metal stand. This worried her even more and she quickly grabbed hold of the tube sticking into her wrist and pulled on it as hard as she could. She winced in pain slightly as the tube slid out, allowing a small trickle of blood to escape from the hole in her wrist. She clamped her other hand over the wound, trying to stem the blood flow, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped as soon as it started. Once that small incident was over with Asuka returned to getting out of bed. As she was preparing to push herself up out of bed her eyes fell on something on the table by her bed. She reached over to the table and picked up the scrap of paper. It was folded in half with 'Asuka' written on it. She shrugged and opened up the piece of paper. A lot of writing was inside. She began reading it.

'Asuka,

I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it. I love you Asuka, and I realise now that I always have. The last few days have been very odd, and I hope I come through all this so I can tell this to you in person. You've been there for me Asuka, you probably didn't realise it, I didn't realise it until a little while ago, but just the fact that you were there meant I could go on living. I wish I could have sat by your side until you woke, so that I could be the first thing you saw, but I have an important job to do, and I don't know how everything is going to turn out. I hope you get this letter, and I hope even more that you feel the same way Asuka. But for now just remember Asuka, I love you. I love you always, and forever.

Shinji'

Asuka stared at the letter, and then read it again. She couldn't remember very much, but she could remember that she was Asuka. She probably could have figured that out from the letter being by her bed, but she knew that she was Asuka as soon as she read the name. One thing she couldn't remember was who Shinji was. It seemed obvious from the letter that it was someone she had known for a long while, and had been close to. Maybe they had been friends, and that their relationship had progressed further than mere friendship. Maybe they had already been in a relationship, before whatever had happened to her had happened. One thing she realised about the letter was that it was most definitely heartfelt. It was clear to her that Shinji was truly and deeply in love with her. She smiled, without knowing why. She felt a warm feeling grow deep inside her. 

'Had we been in a relationship before?' Asuka thought. She found it hard to ignore the feeling growing inside her. Asuka clutched the letter in her hand, pushed herself up out of the bed and walked across the cold floor to the room's door. Now that she had completed her task of getting out of bed she started out to complete her next task, to find Shinji.


	2. The First Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The first day:

A modern way of letting go

"You are extremely afraid of any kind of initial contact aren't you?" Shinji heard a voice say. He recognised the voice, it was a voice he thought he would never hear again. He looked around himself. He was sitting naked on a bench in the NERV showers. He felt an odd sense of déjà vu. He looked to his left, towards the source of the voice. His eyes fell on the boy, and as they did so his surroundings changed.

"It is possible for me to be killed, and whether I live or die makes no great difference," Kaworu said. Now Shinji realised he was in the entry plug of Unit-01, clad in his plugsuit. As he looked ahead he could see the Evangelion's arm stretching out in front of him. Clutched in the Eva's hand was the diminutive form of Kaworu. Despite his depressing utterance Kaworu had a smile on his face, as if he felt happy at the prospect of being killed.

"Are you that afraid of other people?" Kaworu asked rhetorically. Shinji looked at the grey haired boy, standing naked in front of him. Shinji realised he was back in the showers at the Geofront. Just as Shinji realised this the familiar smell of blood entered his nostrils and he was back in Unit-01's entry plug.

"The one truth the Lillum were never able to grasp is that death may be the only absolute freedom there ever was." Kaworu was still smiling, held in the Eva's massive hand.

"I know that by keeping others at a distance you avoid a betrayal of your trust, but while you may not be hurt that way you mustn't forget that you must endure the loneliness."

"What are you? I don't understand what you're talking about… Kaworu, don't make me do this." Shinji said, his voice shaking with uncertainty. He stared out of the screens in the entry plug at Kaworu, trying to make sense of everything that had happened.

"Man can never fully erase the sadness, because all men are fundamentally alone." Shinji listened as Kaworu explained his views on life, in that calm level voice of his.

"This is my wish," Kaworu paused, as if considering his next move. "I want you to destroy me, otherwise you will be destroyed. Only one lifeform will be chosen to evade the destruction and seize the future, and you are not the existence that should die." Shinji stared into Kaworu's blood red eyes, hoping that this was some cruel joke. But Shinji saw sincerity in his eyes, and he realised that it was no joke. "You need the future, it is what you Lillum live for."

"Pain is something that man must endure in his heart," Kaworu continued. "And since the heart feels pain so easily…"

"I thank you Shinji Ikari. My life was meaningful… because of you."

"…some believe life is pain." Shinji closed his eyes as the Eva's fist closed around Kaworu's fragile body.

***

"Aaaaaargh!" Shinji woke up screaming. He sat bolt upright in his bed. He stared at the wall, mentally trying to calm himself. His breathing was heavy, and his body was covered in sweat. It had been another dream, a dream like a nightmare. Only nightmares weren't real. Since Kaworu's death Shinji had been plagued by these dreams, full of the memories he wished he could forget. The door to his bedroom slid open and a purple haired woman appeared in the doorway.

"Shinji, are you okay?" Misato asked. Shinji didn't bother to reply, he didn't even bother to look at her. He lay back down in bed and rolled over to face the wall. Misato sighed and slid the door shut. She leant against his bedroom door, surveying her apartment. Since the conversation she had with Shinji on the lakeshore, on the night of Kaworu's death, Shinji had barely spoken to her. That was nearly a week ago. She was becoming worried about him now. With any normal teenage boy Misato expected that they would feel depressed for a short while, and then recover gradually. But Shinji was no normal teenage boy. Shinji had been through a lot of traumatic events, and maybe the loss of Kaworu, Shinji's closest friend, had been too much for the boy. Misato wished she could do something for him, but a long time ago she had come to realise that she was no good as a guardian. Misato looked over her shoulder at the door to Shinji's bedroom, and then looked down at her feet. She sighed again and then made her way to the kitchen to finish making her breakfast.

***

"We just got the order to activate them," Klaus Fritsch announced as he burst into the control room of NERV-03.

"When did the order come Major?" Commander Meissner asked.

"About two minutes ago." Klaus walked over and stood beside the Commander. He looked about the control room, surveying the army of data analysts as they busily went about inputting computer codes and other such tasks. The control room of NERV's Berlin branch was nearly identical to that of NERV's Tokyo-3 branch. All of NERV's complexes had been built using the same designs.

"Prepare for activation of the units," Meissner announced to the staff.

"Yes sir," nearly all of the analysts replied. The computer screens around the room changed to show a video feed from the Eva cages. Klaus shuddered slightly as the image of the white Evangelions appeared on the computer screen nearest to him. He didn't like to admit it, but those things scared him immensely. The two Eva's stood side by side in the cages, sleeping monsters waiting to be awoken. When he had heard that Eva Units 05 and 06 were to be constructed at NERV-03 he was slightly unnerved. He was uncomfortable with the idea of creating such a huge, and massively destructive, lifeform. The fact that these Evangelion were superior to previous models in nearly every way also scared him. After watching footage from engagements with Angels he found it hard to believe that a weapon more terrifying than the current Evangelions existed. He tried to put the mass-produced Eva's from his mind and concentrate on the task ahead.

"What is the schedule?" Meissner asked. Klaus knew he would be eager to complete the operation smoothly.

"The Eva's are to have departed by four hundred hours. All nine mass produced units are to converge at the designated rendezvous point in the Philippines by eighteen hundred hours. Chairman Keel will take direct control of the operation at that point." Klaus explained.

"Very well." Meissner turned to face the multitude of people busily at work in the control room. "We have a forty five minute window to launch the Eva's. Organise yourselves into two groups. One group will handle pre-deployment checks on the Eva Units. The other group will oversee the preparation of the BX-98's for take-off. Let's try to get this done as quickly as possible."

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Klaus asked nervously.

"It's a bit late for second thoughts now Major," Meissner replied calmly.

"I suppose you're right," Klaus agreed.

"Third Impact is going to happen today, one way or the other. And I prefer SEELE's version over Ikari's," Meissner added.

"It's a shame that Ikari has turned against SEELE, I hear he was quite the poster boy for SEELE in his day," Klaus said, trying to start up a conversation and put his mind at ease.

"I did meet him a few times, and he always seemed to be in control of what was going on…" Meissner stopped mid-sentence and stared at a group of scientists as they argued amongst each other. "What is the delay?" he asked, a menacing undertone in his voice.

"We are experiencing odd energy spikes coming from Unit-06," one of the scientists told him.

"So do something about it," Meissner replied coldly.

"We are trying but the power fluctuations don't seem to be dissipating." Meissner paused to consider this.

"Will the fluctuations affect the Eva's normal activities?" he asked after a while.

"We don't believe so," the scientist said, sounding uncertain.

"Continue with the start up procedure then, we can try to fix that problem once we know the Eva can perform adequately."

"Yes sir." The scientists turned back to observing the Eva's activation, while Meissner turned back to talk to his Major.

"As I was saying, Ikari was held up as a prime example of someone dedicated to SEELE's cause. He was put forward as a role model for NERV employees. It seems he wasn't quite the teacher's pet he made himself out to be," Meissner explained.

"It makes you wonder why he turned against SEELE. He couldn't have expected to get away with it." Fritsch offered his opinions on the current situation.

"I heard he has personal reasons for-" Meissner was cut off as the occupants of the control room were forced to shield their eyes. A brilliant light was shining through the computer screens from the Eva cages. "What's going on?!" Meissner shouted, his hand still clamped over his eyes.

"Unit-06 is giving off some kind of immense energy output, some of it is being turned into light," somebody answered. Meissner made it policy not to get to know people under his command too well and so without visual confirmation of the speaker he was unable to tell who had said that last remark.

"_Some _of it is being turned into light?" Klaus remarked incredulously.

"Shut down Unit-06 right now!" Meissner barked.

"We're trying," somebody else answered.

"Start containment procedures for Unit-06," Meissner ordered.

"We can't, nobody in the Eva cages is answering to any orders, we don't know if it's the light or some kind of ECM effect."

"Lock down the Eva cages!" The Commander shouted.

"But sir, there's still people in there," Klaus argued.

"I don't care, I have to protect the base and SEELE's objectives at all costs. Lock down the cages!"

"Y-Yes, sir," a data analyst replied nervously.

"Why isn't Unit-06 shutting down?" Meissner asked angrily.

"It doesn't seem to be responding to any commands, and we're gradually losing status reports on the Eva's systems," a scientist replied. The light was still blinding Meissner and he felt extremely vulnerable not being able to observe the events that were taking place.

"Flood the cage with Bakelite," Meissner ordered after quickly running through his choices.

"But sir-" Klaus began.

"Shut up Major Fritsch, now is not the time for hesitation!" Meissner shouted at him angrily.

"Sir, another reaction is occurring within the Unit," somebody informed him.

"What?" Meissner shouted in disbelief. 'Just how much worse can this situation get?' he thought.

"We're getting strange readings from- Oh my God, its an-"

An explosion tore through the control room.

***

'I can't just stay in this bed all day,' Shinji thought. 'But… what else is there for me to do?' He sighed to himself. As he lay still in bed, the sheets pulled tightly around him, he could hear Misato making breakfast in the Kitchen. 

Nothing of his past life existed anymore, he realised. In the mornings he would get up knowing he had something to accomplish, either to learn at school, or to take part in a test at NERV. Now, with the school gone, and the last Angel defeated, there was no real need for him to do anything. He was no longer called to NERV to take part in synch tests either. 'Nobody cares about me, now my job is done.'

He tried to think of something to do. On previous days he had wandered around the remains of the city, or the forests or hills that surrounded the area. Since the incident with the 16th Angel nearly everyone in Tokyo-3 had moved out, leaving most of the city deserted. So Shinji was able to walk freely through the city, with minimal contact with other people. And right now that was what Shinji wanted.

Shinji swung his legs out of his bed, and sat on the edge of it while he slowly pulled his clothes on. He wasn't up to searching his wardrobe for a set of clothes he liked, so he just grabbed his school clothes, which were lying on the chair next to his bed.

He walked out into the apartment living room. He headed straight for the apartment door, hoping to avoid Misato on the way out. As he passed the Kitchen he saw that Misato was still busy making breakfast, he kept walking. As he reached the door he heard Misato call out.

"Shinji?" she shouted, wondering who it was in her apartment. Shinji turned the door handle and opened the door. "Shinji!" She sounded angrier now. Shinji looked over his shoulder, he could see Misato's head poking round the Kitchen's doorframe. He stared back at her with emotionless eyes. "Shinji, where are you going?" she stepped out into the hall and placed her hands on her hips to emphasise her annoyance with him. Again Shinji offered no reply. "Aren't you at least going to have some breakfast?" Misato seemed to soften, some of her genuine worry for Shinji spilling out. "Come on Shinji, you can't just ignore everybody else for the rest of your life. You've barely said anything to anyone for a week. Shinji, I'm getting worried about you." She crossed her arms over her stomach and stared sorrowfully at Shinji as he stood in the doorway out of the apartment.

"I'm going to visit Asuka," he said to her.

"Could I come with you?" she asked, in a gentle voice.

"If you want," Shinji answered. He turned away from her and began to walk out into the corridor, towards the elevators.

"Shinji, can't you at least stay and have something to eat first?" Misato asked. Shinji sighed, then turned and headed back to the apartment.

***

"The time is at hand. Without the Lance of Longinus we cannot use Lillith to complete the project," the intimidating monolith marked SEELE-01 intoned. "Our only hope is to proceed using Lillith's only true offspring, Eva Unit-01."

"That was not part of SEELE's original plan," Gendo Ikari replied.

"Creating the Evangelion was the pinnacle of mankind's existence," Kozou Fuyutsuki added.

"Humanity must evolve and shape this brave new world, that is why we created the Eva series," Commander Ikari continued.

"We need not cast aside our human form to use Evangelion as our own private Ark," SEELE-09 reassured him.

"It's merely part of the process to free us all for rebirth," SEELE-12 added angrily, obviously frustrated at Ikari's hesitation at this late stage.

"The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth," another member of SEELE said.

"Through the sacrament of death God, Humanity and all living beings will be united and reborn as one."

"Death creates nothing," Commander Ikari replied, strong determination showing in his voice.

"Your death will create an opportunity," Keel said, anger and frustration clear in his voice. The monoliths of SEELE all faded at the same time, until Ikari and Fuyutsuki were left in a circle of light in the dark room.

"Mankind exists because it has the will to live. After all that's why she chose to remain in the Eva," Fuyutsuki said, trying to show that he believed that Gendo's plan was the right thing to do. "Do you think they will launch an attack?"

"Almost definitely," his superior answered. "It is highly likely that their forces have already been amassed and are ready to attack."

"So we must move quickly then," Fuyutsuki said.

"Not yet," Gendo replied, a degree of curiosity in his voice. Fuyutsuki gave his Commander a puzzled look. "Something else is going on, and it is worrying the old men of SEELE far more than our dissension is. You heard it in Keel's voice, he seemed almost scared." His faced remained blank, betraying none of his emotion.

"What could it be?" Fuyutsuki asked, sounding very worried himself.

"I am not sure. But if it is what I think it is, then I believe Third Impact is out of our control."

"But… I thought the Fifth was meant to prevent this."

"It appears that the prophecy is slightly more concrete than we previously thought."

***

Misato looked over to Shinji again. He hadn't moved.

Since they walked into Asuka's hospital room Shinji had stood perfectly still, his hands clenched by his sides, staring at Asuka. He hadn't said a single word, he had just stared at Asuka. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and this made Misato feel extremely uncomfortable. Misato was standing to the right of, and slightly behind, Shinji, not wanting to interrupt him from… whatever it was he was doing.

Misato wondered why he had came here. He didn't seem to be enjoying this at all. Misato began to think that seeing Asuka like this probably wasn't doing the boy's confidence any good. She sighed, and as she did so she saw Shinji noticeably stiffen up. 

'Of course, it's not Asuka that's making him uncomfortable. It's me.' Misato thought. 'Shinji was hoping to spend some private time with Asuka, and I barged in and ruined it all for him.' She turned her head away from him, feeling ashamed. Misato realised that this method wasn't exactly the best way to try to bring Shinji out of his depression. But she knew that if she left now, to allow him his time alone with Asuka, it might do more damage than staying here would. If she left now Shinji might think she was abandoning him. Misato mentally scolded herself for being so stupid, and started what could be a long wait until Shinji was ready to leave.

***

"All access to and from Headquarters has been restricted?" Maya asked incredulously.

"We're on first level alert," Hyuga explained.

"That doesn't make sense, I thought Kaworu was the last Angel?" Maya replied.

"He was, all the Angels have been defeated," Aoba stated calmly.

"So if we're all safe then what are we doing on first level alert?" Hyuga asked, sounding puzzled.

"What's going to happen to NERV… and the Eva's?" Maya added. "I wish Doctor Akagi was here," she said sadly, lamenting the loss of her mentor.

"I think NERV is probably just going to be disbanded. And I don't even want to think about what they're planning to do with us," Aoba offered ominously. He had seen spy films where, once a secret organisations task is finished, all its employees were killed to stop any information leaking out. He had seen enough of these to make him feel more worried about his impending redundancy than he should have.

"All we can do is wait and see," Hyuga finished.

Maya stared out at the holographic projection of Tokyo-3 in front of Terminal Dogma. She watched as the seconds ticked away on the digital clock.

"Good afternoon Commander Fuyutski," Aoba said aloud. Maya looked at him strangely, thinking he had went mad, but out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Kozou Fuyutsuki walking towards them.

"Good afternoon Commander Fuyutski," Maya repeated.

"Good afternoon Commander Fuyutski," Hyuga said.

"Good afternoon," he replied, sounding doubtful that it was actually a good afternoon. "I'm sure you will all have realised that the Geofront is now on first level alert. Once all members of NERV are within the Geofront we will lock the base down. We are currently collecting together all NERV staff. I want you all to be ready for anything, understand?" The three data analysts nodded. "Good." Fuyutsuki turned to leave.

"Sir," Aoba said, grabbing his superior's attention. Fuyutsuki turned round to look at the man. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is going on?"

"I already explained, NERV staff will be gathered here and the Geofront will then be locked down," Fuyutsuki answered calmly.

"But why is all this happening, sir?" Aoba pressed, determined to get an answer out of the man. Fuyutsuki sighed.

"Commander Ikari has recently had a meeting with SEELE. He believes they intend to attack NERV."

"Attack NERV?" Maya blurted out in shock. "But why?"

"They think the Commander has turned his back on them. They're going to try and seize the Eva's," Fuyutsuki relayed the information to them.

"Has he turned his back on them?" Maya asked, intrigued by these latest developments.

"That's not important at the minute," Fuyutsuki deftly avoided the question. "What's important is that they think he has, so you should be prepared for an attack of any nature."

"Understood, sir," Hyuga said, cutting off any attempts by Maya or Aoba to ask further questions.

"Very well, you may continue with your work," Fuyutsuki turned and walked away from the three data analysts.

"An attack by SEELE?" Maya asked in shock.

"It certainly looks that way," Aoba said, with little hope in his voice.

"So what do we do now?" Maya asked, to anyone willing to answer.

"Like I said, we wait and see," Hyuga repeated himself.

"I really wish Doctor Akagi was here."

***

Rei stared out at the world through the window in her tiny, chaotic apartment. She stood on her bed with her arms folded on the windowsill, her head resting in her arms. Her red eyes scanned the scenery. Over to her right she could just see the edge of the lake, which filled the centre of the city now. To her left she could see the rolling hills that surrounded the now ruined city. In front of her stretched out a strip of the remaining city, deserted apartment blocks and long since closed down shops.

As she stared out across Tokyo-3, and the surrounding area, she thought about what had happened to her over the past several weeks. One of the biggest developments for her was that she had died. Rei had always known that she, as an individual, was expendable. She had known that if she died she could be brought back. That was why, on several occasions, she had thrown herself into the mission with reckless abandon. And why, in her last battle in an Eva, she never hesitated overloading the Eva's generators to kill the Angel.

Knowing that she was not unique. Knowing that if she died, no one would care, or even notice. Knowing that there was really no way to escape this life of her's, not even death, always made Rei feel depressed. She knew that no matter how hard she exerted herself in life, no matter what she did, no one would care about it if she died. So she resigned herself to a life of servitude, following orders without question, and not doing anything she didn't need to do.

But now she was unique. Now if she did something it would be her that was remembered for it, not her cloned successor. Now if she died, that would be the end for her. This frightened Rei more than anything had before. The security of relative immortality had been ripped away from her, and she had been left feeling more alone than ever.

Since her not so miraculous resurrection it seemed like no one had paid any attention to her. She retained some memories of her past life, but they brought no comfort to her. She remembered standing on the catwalk that led to Unit-00 talking to Gendo Ikari, about what she couldn't remember, but she remembered feeling… happy. It was not an emotion she experienced often, so she definitely recognised it when it came along. But since her death her conversations with Gendo had been altogether a lot shorter, and very detached.

"You shall report to NERV every day, in order to keep up appearances. Other than that you should not engage in social interactions if not necessary, your memories are not complete. Although it would not be a disaster for the fact that you are the third Rei to become public knowledge, it would be… convenient if that information remained a secret." Gendo then dismissed her. And that was all he said to her in their meeting. Rei had nodded her acknowledgement and quietly left his office.

Even if she hadn't been told not to talk to anybody, she probably couldn't have anyway. She had never been known to be talkative before, and since her miraculous survival of the absolute destruction of her Eva people had avoided her as much as possible. She had overheard several of the staff of NERV talking about how she had, "Creeped them out." Normally this wouldn't bother her, but over the years of her life she had heard this many times, and in her current state these casual remarks seemed to really hurt her. Right now she believed that no one cared about her.

Gendo didn't care for her.

Maya didn't care for her.

Aoba didn't care for her.

Hyuga didn't care for her.

Asuka never liked her.

Ritsuko despised her.

Misato never showed anything but superficial emotions towards her.

And Shinji…

"Shinji?" She stared down at the streets below. Far below her she could see a figure, dressed in school clothes, with dark brown hair, slowly making his way down the street towards the lake. "Shinji?" she repeated, recognising the figure below.

Behind her the phone started ringing.

***

Shinji pulled his wet hair away from his eyes. He was standing on a lump of rubble atop a pile of debris. The pile was high enough to leave it sticking out of the lake that used to be Tokyo-3. He didn't know why he had swam out to this place, maybe he was just trying to get as far away from other people as he could.

He stared at the statue looming out of the water. If he was in a different mood he might have laughed at it. The statue had been constructed as a memorial for all those who had died in Second Impact. It was ironic, then, that they had chosen an angel to stand on the memorial, as a reminder of those who lost their lives. It was barely recognisable now, partly through natural erosion, but mostly due to it being badly scorched from the explosion of Unit-00. Only the angel's vague shape could be made out now, its wing's, torso, head and arms were all that were sticking out of the water. The whole thing was facing west, so that at dusk it looked like it was watching the sunset. There was nothing special about this statue, there was no particular reason why Shinji had swam here, it was just a landmark for Shinji to mark the spot with.

His time spent with Asuka was shorter than usual, although Misato did find it hard to stand in silence for half an hour. As Misato had guessed it was her presence that was making Shinji uncomfortable. Usually he would talk to her while she was asleep, trying to get her to wake up, but with Misato there he knew he couldn't do that. It wasn't as if he didn't want to appear weak in front of Misato, but he knew if he did it, it would cause him to receive a lot more attention from her. Attention he didn't want. So he had stood there, in silence, for half an hour, and he had tried not to cry.

After they had left Asuka's hospital room Misato had said that she needed to get back to NERV, and so she had left. Shinji didn't blame her.

'She was just doing this for herself,' Shinji had thought as he watched her walk down the hospital corridor away from him. 'She just wanted to do something to soothe her conscience, so she wouldn't have to blame herself for what I'm going through. She did this for herself,' he repeated to himself, 'She doesn't care about me. Nobody could ever care about me.'

So he came to this place, to get away from the hatred and indifference he saw all around him.

'Nobody cares about me. I can't talk to anyone.' Shinji's mind wandered to those memories he tried to bury. Kaworu's death. Toji being injured. Rei's death. 'All I ever do I cause pain.' He bowed his head, as if in shame. 

He stared at the water below. The water must have been deep as it turned a dark blue at about a depth of two metres, so dark Shinji couldn't see anything past that depth. He continued staring at the water. He stepped off his little island falling forward into the water. As the cold water washed over him, soaking his clothes all over again, he had no intention of ever resurfacing.

***

The sun was just dropping below the hills surrounding Tokyo-3, taking the dark red glow of the sky with it, when Misato Katsuragi pulled up outside the entrance to the Geofront. As she rode the freight elevator down towards the Geofront she thought of how Shinji was doing. She knew it was just like crying over spilt milk, but she wished she could have been there for Shinji when he really needed her. Before, when she should have been acting like a mother to Shinji, she was too busy with Kaji. After a long while in her life she had been really happy, and so she had paid no heed to the problems of others. And after Kaji's death, which affected Shinji nearly as badly as it did her, she was too busy grieving over him to pay attention to anyone else's problems. She sighed, and watched the lights in the elevator shaft pass by at regular intervals.

As the elevator juddered to a halt, and the clamps keeping her car in place released, she drove off towards the pyramid building that was NERV's headquarters in the Geofront. She parked her car in one of the many car parks in the Geofront used by NERV staff and continued on foot towards Terminal Dogma. 

She had received the phone call to assemble at NERV roughly twenty minutes ago, and so had started out on the drive to the Geofront. Usually the drive took half an hour from her apartment in the suburbs, but since the encounter with the 16th Angel, and the subsequent abandonment of the city, journeys in or around Tokyo-3 usually took half the time. While she was en route she had called Hyuga to ask for an update on the situation. The NERV phone operator who had informed her of the first level alert seemed as shocked by it as Misato was. Hyuga had told her about the conversation with Fuyutsuki and the information it had yielded. Ever since Misato had discovered that Gendo had lied to SEELE about the invasion of NERV by the 11th Angel she new that he and SEELE would come to blows eventually, but she never expected them to launch an attack on the Geofront itself.

"What's the situation?" she asked as she entered the control room in terminal dogma.

"No change yet ma'am," Lieutenant Ibuki reported.

"Hmm…" Misato pondered this for a while. She would have expected SEELE to have made some move by now. 'Unless they're waiting for a night attack,' she thought. "Keep on the lookout," she told the data analysts, "SEELE are well organised. When they strike we had better be damn well prepared."

"Yes ma'am," the three analysts chorused.

"What's our status?" Major Katsuragi asked.

"All surveillance equipment is operating, we have some glitches on video feeds from the West-5 sector but we're working on that." Hyuga reported.

"I've installed a type 666 firewall in the MAGI, if they try to take them we'll be ready for them," Maya reported confidently.

'She seems to be coping well without Ritsuko around,' Misato thought. 'I guess Ritsuko is a good teacher after all.' The thoughts of her friend brought back sad memories again, she tried to focus on her job and push them from her mind. "Have all of the NERV staff been brought here?"

"Most of them, there are still some members who we have been unable to get in contact with. We have agents from Section 2 out searching the city for them." Aoba replied.

"How many members are missing?"

"Seventeen, but they are mainly non-essential staff, we could run the Geofront without them."

"That's alright, but keep trying to locate them, we could need everybody we can get."

"Yes ma'am," Aoba acknowledged her request.

"What about the pilots?"

"Rei arrived a while ago, but we have yet to locate Shinji," Aoba answered.

'Shinji, this is not the time to go AWOL on us,' Misato mentally cursed. "I was visiting Asuka in hospital with him earlier today if that helps," Misato offered.

"I'll be sure to pass it on to the agents."

"And what about Asuka?" Misato asked.

"She is still unconscious. The hospital staff said it could worsen her condition if she is moved now. Since she won't really be any use to us while she's still unconscious we decided to leave her in the hospital."

"Very well," Misato said finally.

"What do we do now ma'am?" Maya asked, a hint of worry showed in her voice.

"We wait and see," Misato said confidently, trying to hide her nervousness.

***

"What the hell is that!?" Hyuga exclaimed.

"What is it? Status report!" Misato demanded. She had been waiting for nearly three hours now. She wasn't exactly glad that a battle was looking likely, but at least the waiting was over.

"One unidentified flying object coming in at 220kmh, West-8 sector," Hyuga reported. Misato looked up at the large holographic projection of Tokyo-3. To the northwest of the city she could see a green triangular symbol moving towards Tokyo-3.

"What is it?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder on his workstation.

"I'm unsure at the moment, sensors seem to be having a hard time getting a lock on it. I'm going to try and get a visual confirmation."

"Do it," Misato said, hurrying him to uncover the identity of this mystery intruder. A holographic display of the video feed from that area appeared in front of Terminal Dogma. Nothing much could be seen in the darkness, but a shape could clearly be made out, blocking the light from the stars as it made its way across the night-time sky. "Switch to night vision display," Misato ordered. The holographic display took on a green hue as the shape of the intruder became visible. Misato didn't recognise what it was at first, startled that such a huge thing could stay airborne. She had only seen the blueprints for the things, and was unaware of what they would look like in reality, so it took her mind a short while to make the connection that this was the finished version. The changes to how she expected them to look also threw her slightly. It's wings were a lot longer than she thought they had been in the blueprints, and strange bumps along the length of them made it look like they had feathered wings. Also she had thought that the final versions were all going to be white, but this was jet black.

"What is that thing?" Maya said, her eyes growing wide in horror.

"It's a mass production model Eva," Misato stated calmly. "So SEELE have finally perfected their S2 engine."

"Those things have S2 engines as well?" Maya asked, her eyes still fixed to the image of the huge weapon flying across the moonlit sky.

"Yes, it would be hard for them to fly if they didn't have a permanent internal power source."

"Another object appearing on radar," Hyuga informed the collected NERV staff, "It looks like another one."

"Another one?" Maya exclaimed in shock.

'Dear God, is SEELE sending all nine of them here? But without any ground support? This seems a bit reckless for SEELE,' Misato thought. "Has Shinji been located yet?" she asked, trying to prepare the base for what seemed like an inevitable assault.

"Shinji has yet to be located, we still have agents in the field. They've searched the hospital but it doesn't look like he has been there since this morning," Aoba reported.

"Damn it!" Misato slammed her fist down on Hyuga's workstation, making the data analyst jump in fright, "Where the hell is he?" She paused for a moment thinking what to do. "Maya can you rewrite Unit-02's personality data for Rei?"

"I suppose so," Maya answered sheepishly.

"How long will it take?"

"About thirty minutes, minimum," she offered.

"What's the ETA on the mass production Eva's?" Misato asked Hyuga.

"I'd say, eighteen minutes," he replied.

"Shit," Misato cursed. 'Ground troops aren't even going to dent those things, I need an Eva to fight them,' she thought. "Okay, get Rei suited up and into the Eva, I want her ready to deploy as soon as the personality rewrite is complete," she ordered, stern determination in her voice.

"But we're still not sure if Rei could synch with Unit-02," Maya said, she was sounding very worried by now.

"I know the problems, but I need Unit-01 free for when Shinji arrives. Prepare Unit-01 for launch as well," Misato added.

"Yes, ma'am," the three data analysts replied simultaneously.

"And Lieutenant Ibuki?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I'd very much like not to die today, so can you get that rewrite done as fast as possible?"

"Yes, ma'am," Maya immediately turned to her workstation and begin inputting codes in a blur of activity. Misato set her jaw in a look of grim determination.

'Where the hell are you Shinji?'

***

Rei sat in darkness. The lukewarm LCL that filled the entry plug, and the metal of the command couch she was sitting in were the only things she could feel. The beating of her own heart was the only thing she could hear. The smell of blood was all she could smell. She could see nothing. Something about this situation unnerved.

'Perhaps this is what death is like?' she thought. 'Where we have no senses to comfort us.' She sat in silence for a long while. For how long she didn't know, she found it hard to keep track of time in this environment. She tried to push all the bad experiences she had had in an entry plug from her mind. She tried to think if she had even had any good experiences in an entry plug. A memory surfaced in her mind.

"Ayanami! Are you alright?" she heard somebody shout. He sounded very worried. "Ayanami!" Rei slowly opened her eyes. The entry plug of Unit-00 swam into view around her. To her left she could see a shaft of light coming through the access hatch to the entry plug. Something was obscuring some of the light. As her eyes focused on the shape it began speaking. "Don't ever say that," Shinji said quietly, "that you have nothing else. Please just don't say that." Rei looked at him as he looked back at her, tears welling up in his eyes. "And don't say goodbye when you leave on a mission, it's just too sad." Shinji bowed his head, and began crying. Rei leaned forward to look at the boy, confused by this display of emotion.

"Why do you cry like that?" she asked. She felt like she should be responding in some way to Shinji opening up to her like this, but she didn't know how. "I'm very sorry. I don't know what I should feel or do at a time like this," she confessed. The boy looked at her, his lips curling up slightly at the ends in a small smile. He looked happy to her.

"Then why don't you try-"

"Rei, are you alright in there?" Misato asked over the communication system, rudely interrupting Rei's reminiscing.

"Yes," she replied.

"Good. Lieutenant Ibuki is experiencing some delays with the reprogramming." Misato paused, somehow Rei knew that she had paused to glare at Maya. "You're going to have to stay in there a little while longer. Once the reprogramming is complete you will have to launch immediately. Are you ready for that?"

"I am prepared," Rei replied calmly.

"Good. Now you know what you're going to be up against, so make sure you fight your hardest. I'll co-ordinate you from here, okay?"

"Understood."

***

Misato pressed a button on Hyuga's workstation to end the conversation.

'I don't want to send Rei out in Unit-02 alone, but I don't have any other choice,' she thought. 'Damn you Shinji, why are you doing this?'

"Major!" Hyuga called out. Misato turned to look at him.

"What is it?" She asked.

"The mass production Eva's have arrived above the Geofront," he reported in a panicked voice. Misato looked up frantically. A holographic projection of the video feed from above the Geofront showed one of the vulture-like Eva's land. It's wings retracted into its back. It began turning its head about, as if looking for something.

"Lieutenant Ibuki, hurry up with that reprogramming," Misato said, worry and stress creeping into her voice. "What's it doing?" she asked, as she watched in fascination as it continued to scan the area for something.

"It looks like its searching for something," Hyuga offered his opinion. On the screen the second Eva landed behind it, it's wings retracting into its back as it stood back upright. The first Eva turned round to look at the other, as if sharing some knowing nod. Then both the Eva's raised the great blades they had been carrying with them and began pounding them into the ground.

"What the hell?" Misato shouted aloud. "Are those things… digging?" She squinted at the screen, as if not believing her eyes.

"It certainly looks like it," Aoba commented. Misato looked around to notice that all the data analysts seemed equally intrigued with this spectacle as she was.

"Surely this is some kind of joke?" Misato said. "With SEELE's resources they could just blow the top off the Geofront with an N2 mine if they wanted." Misato heard Maya gasp in fright at the thought. "Why are they trying to dig their way into the Geofront?" The four NERV employees kept staring in amazement as the two jet black Eva's continued excavating great lumps of earth. "How long will it take them to reach the Geofront?" Misato asked, her voice sounding more curious than worried.

"At this rate, taking into account that many of the plates protecting the Geofront still haven't been repaired, I'd say roughly ten minutes." Hyuga estimated. Misato looked around at the data analysts, their eyes all seemed rooted to the screen.

"Well," she stared at the people around her, none of them moved. "Keep working then," she said angrily. The three NERV staff members busily resumed their work. 'If it will take that long for them to dig down,' Misato thought. 'Then I may be able to catch them by surprise.' A cunning looking smile crept across her face. 'I've just got to hope there's no more problems with the reprogramming.'

"Excuse me, Major Katsuragi?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Yes," she turned round to look at the man. He was wearing the familiar sunglasses and suit that was the hallmarks of a member of section 2.

"We have recently found-"

"Shinji!" Misato said angrily. Standing next to the man, looking nervously at his feet was Shinji Ikari. "Shinji, where have you been?" Misato demanded. The boy stayed silent. "It doesn't matter now anyway. Shinji get into your plugsuit then get into Unit-01, now!"

"Unit-01, but-" Shinji looked up at Misato and tried to voice his protest.

"This is no time for second thoughts, Shinji," she barked at him. "The Geofront is being attacked by two newtype Eva's. Rei is currently in no position to help so you have to deploy now to engage them. We will deploy Rei as soon as we can. Launch through the emergency Catapult with a positron rifle. If you're good enough you should be able to snipe both of the Eva's before they can counter-attack, got it?"

"But I-"

"Not now Shinji," she interrupted him. "You," she looked at the section 2 agent.

"Yes major," he stayed standing rigid, his arms folded behind his back.

"Take him to Unit-01's Eva cage, immediately."

"Yes major," he grabbed Shinji by the arm and pulled him out of terminal dogma towards the Eva cages. Shinji stared at his feet as he was forced out of the room.

"Send word to the Eva cages that Unit-01 is to be launched as soon as the pilot arrives. And keep working on the reprogramming of Unit-02." Misato stared at the image of the two mass production Eva's digging downwards, and tried to force the intense feeling of guilt from her mind.

***

"Launch in five, four, three, two…" 

Shinji grabbed onto the control sticks to brace himself as Eva Unit-01 went rocketing up the Catapult. After a few seconds the whole Evangelion rocked as the Catapult ended, bringing its massive acceleration to an abrupt halt.

"Shinji take cover, we can't have the mass production Eva's spot you straight away," Misato ordered him over the communication system. Shinji obediently dropped the Eva down onto one knee, allowing the tall trees and surrounding hills to partially obscure the Eva. He grabbed the power cable from its recess, near the exit of the Catapult, and plugged it into the back of his Eva. "Okay Shinji, commence your attack when you're ready."

'Why am I doing this?' Shinji thought, as he commanded his Eva to raise the positron rifle. He activated the targeting mechanism and a helmet lowered itself down onto his head. The display inside the helmet showed the two Eva's in front of him still busily digging away with their swords. They had dug quite a deep hole and so only the top halves of their bodies could be seen sticking out of it. 'I don't want to do this, all I ever do when I pilot Eva is hurt people. But so many people expect me to do this. I-I don't know what to do.' Shinji sighed. He altered the angle of his positron rifle slightly, so the targeting cursor lined up with one of the Eva's heads. He watched as the Eva's head moved up and down as it continued digging. He waited, watching the movement, until he felt sure his shot would hit its mark. Shinji pulled the trigger.

The second Eva looked around in bewilderment as it was showered with blood from its companion's exploding head. As the first Eva's body flopped lifelessly to the floor, with a very loud thud, Shinji lined up his next shot. As he moved the positron rifle, watching as the targeting cursor moved over the second Eva's head, he noticed the Eva was looking directly at him, holding its sword over its head. He stared at the Eva in amazement as it pulled the blade back, sticking its other arm out to balance itself, like an athlete about to throw a javelin. The Eva threw the sword. Shinji expected the sword to just fly in a short arc and embed itself in the ground not too far in front of the Eva. He knew that even something as powerful as an Evangelion couldn't throw something as heavy as those swords looked very far. What Shinji definitely wasn't expecting was the blade to transform into a Lance of Longinus as soon as it left the Eva's hand and streak across the landscape towards him.

"Shinji! Move!" Misato cried. Shinji jerked his Eva into action, trying to roll it onto its side to avoid the Lance. But the Lance seemed to be travelling at an impossibly fast speed towards him, and the bulk of his Eva made it feel like he was wading through quicksand. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as Shinji willed his Eva to move faster, watching in horror as the Lance closed in on him. The Lance struck the positron rifle, held in his right hand, first. He rifle seemed to shatter as the Lance hit it, breaking into two and sending out a shower of shrapnel. The Lance then hit Unit-01 in its right arm, one of its prongs piercing straight through its arm. The force of the blow knocked the huge fighting machine back, knocking it flat on its back, the Lance pinning its arm to the ground.

Shinji screamed in pain as the feedback from his punctured arm caught up with him.

"Shinji, incoming!" Misato warned him. He looked up to see the remaining Eva spread its wings and soar through the air towards him. Shinji grabbed hold of the Lance stuck through his arm and, bracing himself against the inevitable pain, pulled as hard as he could. He strained and gritted his teeth, but it didn't seem to budge.

"The Lance, I-I can't pull it out," Shinji said in a panic.

"Calm down Shinji," Misato replied, but she sounded equally as worried as he did. "Try to find some way to fight it off."

"I can't, my rifles been destroyed," Shinji replied, his voices getting faster as his panic grew.

"Shinji calm down," Misato tried again. She looked at the display of information on Shinji's condition. His heart rate was rising fast. "Shinji!"

"It's coming right for me, I can't stop it!" Shinji said, frantically trying to pull the Lance out of his arm. "Help me, Asuka! Help me!" Shinji looked up to see the Eva ready to swoop down on him. Its mouth was open in a frenzied grin.

Shinji screamed.

****

End of the first day

Authors Notes:

Well that's the first chapter finished! I've spent a long time planning this so I hope you enjoyed it. My thanks go out to Daniel 'Syco' Brown, for his continued support for my writing endeavours. I'd also like to thank Bowburn for publicly admitting to liking my first crappy fic Neon Echo Evangelion, and Tyreal for actually hosting the monstrosity on his website (Go there people, it's a great site .) Also I got to thank my prereader Andre Laval, best damn prereader there is! That's all for now, the next chapter might take a while, so don't hold your breath.


	3. The Second Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The second day:

What it is to burn

Shinji wheezed as he felt the massive bulk of the mass production Evangelion land on his Eva. Shinji looked up at the black Evangelion. It was kneeling on Unit-01's stomach; its arms spread out, with its hands either side of Unit-01 supporting its own weight. Its wings folded into its back once again. Shinji froze in fear, his Eva staying perfectly still, its left hand gripping the Lance of Longinus piercing its right upper arm. The Eva lowered its head closer to Unit-01's, opening its mouth, letting its tongue loll out of its mouth. It looked hungry.

'What can I do? What can I do?' Shinji thought, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid having to look at the terrifying sight above him. 'What can I do?'

***

"Come on Shinji… move," Misato whispered under her breath, as she watched the scene through a monitor in Terminal Dogma. "What's the progress on the Unit-02 rewrite?" she barked at Maya.

"Just a few more minutes," Maya reported, not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her. Numbers and letters flew over the screen as she typed furiously.

"Hurry it up," Misato told her. "Shinji needs all the help he can get."

"What can we do for him, ma'am?" Hyuga asked.

"Nothing," she replied flatly. "He's on his own for the moment, we've just got to hope he can get out of this one himself." Hyuga nodded his reluctant agreement. He turned round to monitor Shinji's vitals once again. Misato looked back to the monitor, watching the black Eva lower its head closer to Unit-01, lying helpless on the mountainside. It looked like a mad dog, about to go in for the kill. She hated the feeling of helplessness that surrounded her, nothing she could say or do at this moment could help Shinji. 'Come on Shinji, do something.'

***

Shinji opened his eyes. The black monster was still above him. He saw it open its mouth wide, and then lunge down towards him. He screamed.

"You have to do something, Shinji," a gentle voice said.

"What?" Shinji asked, wondering what was going on. 'What is this voice?' he thought.

"You can't just lie there," it whispered softly. It sounded happy. "Come on Shinji," it said, gently coercing him to move. "You don't want to die here… do you?"

The mass production Eva lunged down, it's teeth bared, ready to sink them into its captive prey. Unit-01's eyes flared bright white. It brought its free arm up to grab the black Eva by the back of its head and pull it down towards itself. At the same time it brought its head up as fast as it could towards the Eva's open mouth. There was a horrifying crack as the horn on Unit-01's head penetrated the roof of its tormentor's mouth, passed through the Eva's brain and out the top of its head. Blood cascaded down Unit-01's face from the wound and from teeth knocked out by the purple Eva's brutal assault. Shinji screamed again, except this time it wasn't from fear, it was from a mixture of rage and triumph. Shinji jerked his head backwards, causing his Eva to do the same, it's horn splitting the mass production Eva's head in half. His opponent clutched its ruined face, blood gargling in its throat as it attempted to scream. Shinji continued the offensive, pulling his free arm back and delivering a vicious punch to the Eva's stomach. Although due to his position the punch wasn't as strong as it could have been it was still sufficient enough to dislodge the Eva from its position kneeling on top of his Eva. The Eva slid backward slightly, its legs slipping off his Eva's stomach, making it easier for him to move. Shinji pressed his advantage, drawing his Eva's knees up to its chest and then lashing out at the black Eva by kicking it in the stomach with both legs simultaneously. Although its brain had been severely damaged in the last attack the Eva was still going. Shinji realised it would rally itself soon to attack him again. He had to get into a better position to defend himself. 

'I can't pull the Lance out of my arm though, so what can I do?' then an idea hit him. He gritted his teeth, mustered his strength and then pulled his arm down as hard as he could. He cried out in pain as a gash was torn open in his upper arm as it freed itself from the Lance. Huge quantities of blood poured out onto the earth from the wound. Shinji tried to put the pain towards the back of his mind and get his Eva standing upright again. As his Eva righted itself Shinji saw the mass production Eva launch itself at him again. It ran towards him, its arms outstretched in front of it. Shinji reached each arm up to his Eva's shoulder units to retrieve a prog knife, and then stretched his arms out behind him. As the mass production Eva came within striking distance he lunged with both hands at it. Both blades stuck into his opponent's chest causing yet more bloodshed. However this attack wasn't enough to stop his aggressor, and it continued charging towards him. Shinji commanded his Eva to set its legs apart, to attempt to stop the black Evangelion. Unit-01 skidded backwards under the force from the black Eva's charge. He was able to gain some purchase on the ground. He pushed forward in an attempt to bring his enemy's charge to a halt. But the Eva kept going, ending up pushing Unit-01's arms backwards so that the hilt of the prog knives were pressing up against Unit-01's chest. Shinji felt the black Eva's hands grasp Unit-01 by the shoulders, and saw its bloodied head lunge forward. He cried out as he felt the Eva's teeth sink into Unit-01's throat. Its ruined jaw and crooked teeth caused it to bite into the flesh at odd angles. Shinji pulled one of the knives out of the Eva's chest and then brought his right arm round so he could strike at the Eva's head with the blade. He stabbed the knife into the side of the Eva's head, while at the same time he drove the other further into the Eva's chest. More blood spilled on the ground between them as the black Eva bit harder on Unit-01's throat and Shinji drove his knives deeper into his attacker. Shinji was finding it hard to breathe as the mass production Eva's attack was beginning to crush his windpipe.

'I've got to try and get this thing off me, and soon,' he thought, panic welling up in him. He screamed in rage, putting as much effort into his attack as he could. Shinji felt the blade stuck in the Eva's chest stop as it reached something hard inside it. The Eva recoiled almost instantly as the blade touched this. It broke off its grip on Unit-01's throat and pulled away from the purple Eva as fast as it could. Shinji couldn't maintain his grip on the prog knives and they were wrenched out of his hands as his opponent backed away.

'It's core, of course, I just need to destroy its core and then it'll all be over,' Shinji realised. 'But I've lost my knives, I'll have to find another way.' Shinji leaned his Eva forward turning it to the side, so his right shoulder was facing towards the black Eva. He charged towards the mass production Evangelion as it continued to back away from him. He saw it begin to spread its wings as he drew near to it. He caught the Eva in its stomach just as its feet left the ground. His attack knocked the Eva out of the air and onto its back. Unfortunately Shinji had overestimated the power required to knock down the Eva and so the purple fighting machine continued forward, caught its foot on the downed Eva's arm and fell forward onto the ground as well. Shinji tried to get his Eva back on his feet as fast as he could, he couldn't allow the mass production Eva to get airborne and take the advantage in the fight. He managed to get the Eva back on its feet and as he turned around he saw the black Eva was in the process of getting back up itself. His Eva leapt through the air, its umbilical cord trailing through the air after it, and landed on the Eva. The black Eva found itself in a similar position to that Shinji had been in just a few minutes earlier, flat on the ground with another Eva on top of it. Shinji tried to make a grab for the knife in the black Eva's chest, but the black Eva got there first. The Eva beneath him pulled the knife out of its own chest and then lunged upward with it, stabbing the knife into Unit-01's throat. Shinji tried to cry out in pain, but couldn't breathe. Unit-01 sat upright as Shinji tried to pull the knife out of his throat, to get some air into his lungs. The mass production Eva took this opportunity to escape from Unit-01. Shinji threw the knife down on the ground and gasped great mouthfuls of air. He looked up to see the black Eva standing facing him, wings outspread, ready to take off.

'I've got to stop it,' he thought. He tried to run towards the Eva, Unit-01 stumbling slightly as it got up onto its feet. The mass production Eva flapped its wings and took off. It soared into the sky only to jerk suddenly in mid-air. It looked down in confusion to see Unit-01 grabbing its ankles. Shinji ran forward, holding onto the black Eva as it flapped its wings, frantically trying to shake off his grip and fly off in the opposite direction to the one Unit-01 was dragging it. Shinji flung the Eva, watching it arc through the air in front of him, its wings collapsing around its body from the force of Unit-01's throw. The black Eva then seemed to almost freeze in mid-air. Blood sprayed from its chest as a grey spike appeared from inside the Eva's chest. Shinji had thrown the Eva and impaled it on the end of the Lance of Longinus, still stuck in the ground. The Eva grabbed the end of the Lance, desperately attempting to save itself somehow. Then its body went limp as its shattered core finally stopped working. It collapsed back against the Lance that pinned it in mid-air. It's arms dropped to its side, and its head rolled back to look up at the sky. Finally the Evangelion that had taken so much punishment, and still kept fighting, was dead. Shinji gasped for air, and shuddered slightly, as the realisation that the fight was over hit him.

"Good work Shinji," he heard Misato say over the intercom. "Head back to the Catapult to be retrieved." Shinji was too exhausted to reply, so instead he nodded his acknowledgement, knowing that Misato would see it. He walked back to the Catapult, which was very close by, noticing that his body seemed to hurt more now the adrenaline flow in his body had stopped. Unit-01 had taken a lot of damage during the fight and he was paying for it now. "Shinji, behind you!" Misato cried out over the intercom. Shinji turned Unit-01 round in time to see a mass production Eva take to the skies. It was the first mass production Eva he had defeated, he could see that it only had the right side of its head, the left side having been blown off by his shot with a positron rifle. Shinji was once again filled with fear, the prospect of fighting another one of those things terrified him. The Eva flew high into the sky spreading its wings wide apart, its sword gripped defiantly in its hand. It looked like an avenging Angel from Hell.

***

"How is that thing still functional?" Aoba asked, looking very shocked.

"It must be the S2 engines," Misato said, partly to Aoba and partly to herself. "The S2 engines must be able to allow the mass production Eva's to function while heavily damaged, and to regenerate at a faster rate than normal." Aoba looked back at the monitor, and saw that the gaping hole in the side of the Eva's head did seem to be closing up. "I don't know if Shinji can withstand another attack, we need to deploy Unit-02 as soon as possible. Maya?" she asked the computer specialist who was still busily typing commands into the computer in front of her.

"The rewrite's nearly done," she reported, sounding panicked. "About thirty seconds."

"It's leaving," Hyuga said suddenly.

"What!?" Misato asked, stunned at what she had just heard. She spun round to look at the various screens relaying footage from outside. The black Eva had turned around and began flying away from Unit-01. "It's escaping, SEELE must not want to run the risk of losing another."

"Should we attempt to intercept?" Aoba asked.

"No let it go," she replied. "Trying to fight another would probably be more trouble than it's worth right now. But just keep an eye on it, try and see where it goes."

"Yes ma'am," Aoba replied.

***

Shinji watched the Eva fly off into the distance, it's black form nearly invisible in the darkness of the night. But it seemed to him that, flying into the sky to spread its wings, it had issued a challenge to them. He knew he would see it again, and probably soon.

"Okay Shinji, it's over now," Misato told him, although she didn't sound totally sure of that herself. "Come back now."

***

Rei glanced at Shinji as he walked into the NERV changing rooms, making sure not to stare too long at the boy. She could tell from his emotionless expression and dead eyes that he was not happy about what he had just done. She heard the door shut on one of the cubicles along the far wall, followed by the rustling of clothes as Shinji changed out of his plugsuit and back into his normal attire. Rei was already back in her school uniform, having been released from Unit-02 as soon as the danger was over. She didn't know why she had decided to wait for Shinji, but she had. So she sat on the bench in the changing rooms staring at the cubicle opposite her, trying not to look at the only occupied one. Thinking of Shinji brought back good memories, some of the only good memories she had. She remembered feeling happy around Commander Ikari, during their meals together, her childhood spent with him, but his recent actions and attitude towards her had tainted those memories. She heard the cubicle door open. She looked up to see Shinji standing outside the cubicle, now in his usual clothes of a white shirt and black trousers. He was staring at Rei, his hands by his sides. He seemed to be thinking about something. Rei stared back at him for a long while, trying to think of something to say. 

"Ikari-"

"Shinji?" Misato interrupted as she walked into the changing room. Misato saw Shinji as soon as she walked into the room. She also spotted Rei, sitting over the other end of the room from the entrance. Her mouth was slightly open, as if she was about to say something, but nearly as soon as Misato looked at her Rei closed her mouth and stared down at the floor in front of her. Shinji seemed to do something similar, focusing on a section of flooring to Misato's right. It looked to Misato like he was trying to avoid eye contact with her. "Shinji, I'd just like to say… I'm sorry… for making you go out there," Misato said softly. She knew the boy would have disliked piloting Eva again, he made it quite clear he didn't want to before she forced him. The engagement had also been particularly brutal, so she knew he wouldn't like her at the minute. An apology seemed like quite a weak gesture on her part, but it was the best she could do.

"It's okay," Shinji said quietly, "you were only doing your job. As long as the mission is complete I guess it doesn't matter about me."

"No Shinji, that's not how it is at all," she answered, trying to sound sincere, but she knew he was at least partly correct. She folded her arms and looked over to her right, trying to think of something else to say.

"Is there anything else?" he asked, his voice carrying a twinge of sadness.

"Look Shinji, I'm just saying that I'm sorry. If there was another way I would have taken it, you know that right?" she asked hopefully. Shinji stayed exactly as he was, standing nearly rigid, staring down at the ground, his fringe hanging over his face to obscure his eyes. Misato sighed.

"I'm going to go back to the apartment," he said. Shinji stood still for a moment, as if undecided as to how to proceed next, and then slowly walked over to the door and out of the changing rooms. Misato watched him as he left, his movements, appearance, everything about him made him look very uncomfortable. She sighed again and then glanced over at Rei. Rei was looking in her direction, but once again nearly as soon as Misato looked at her she looked down at the floor in front of her. Misato turned to leave the changing rooms. Rei heard the changing room door open and close once again, leaving her completely alone in the room.

***

"The mass production Evangelions have changed from our original designs," Gendo stated.

"It does not matter," SEELE-05 answered, "You will be destroyed in the end."

"Not if all your attacks are as poorly executed as that," Gendo smirked.

"That was only part of our plan Ikari, we wished only to test your defences to see how well you responded to our attack," SEELE-09 replied. "And your defence was not well planned, if it was not for a lucky move from your son you would have been destroyed."

"What do you hope to accomplish by resisting us?" SEELE-07 asked. His arrogant voice carried the notion that he was genuinely intrigued as to what would cause someone to be stupid enough to stand against them.

"We still have eight more Evangelions Ikari, you know that NERV would not be able withstand an assault from them, let alone other weapons in our arsenal. You should surrender now, there is no need for you to perish needlessly."

"I do not believe there is," Gendo said in agreement,before letting another smirk form behind his white gloves. "But then again, I do not believe I will.""See sense, Ikari," SEELE-11 stated flatly.

"You cannot stand against us Ikari," Keel stated. "We began this project together, why can we not finish it so?"

"I have my reasons," he stated calmly.

"We should never have trusted you Ikari, a lowly dog such as you should never be offered the opportunity to receive Godhood," SEELE-09 answered, sounding angry.

"You will regret this Ikari," Keel said, with an air of finality that made it seem more like a statement than a threat. One after another the SEELE monoliths quickly disappeared, once again leaving Gendo and Fuyutsuki standing alone in an illuminated circle.

"The old men of SEELE are becoming reckless," Gendo commented.

"And desperate," Fuyutsuki added.

"They do not know how events will unfold, so they are clutching at ideas, hoping for a solution."

"But surely we are in the same position, that is if your prediction is correct."

"Yes, but with both Adam and Lilith in our possession we have the upper hand at the moment."

***

"So you got to pilot Eva again, huh? You must be so happy," Asuka said, in her usual patronising tone.

"No I didn't want to," Shinji said, but there was no strength to his words.

"Then why did you then?" Misato asked him.

"Because you made me. Because I had no choice."

"You had plenty of choice," Asuka retorted. "You coulda just said no."

"I tried-"

"Not hard enough," Misato interrupted him. Shinji stared down at his feet, feeling ashamed of himself.

"How do you feel?" Rei questioned him.

"About what?"

"About everything, dumbkopf!" Asuka replied. "About me, about them, but most of all…"

"About you," Rei completed Asuka's sentence.

"I feel… sad," he answered after a long pause. " I don't want to do this anymore, but I don't have any choice."

"Of course you have a choice Shinji," Misato told him in a soothing tone of voice. "Everybody has the right to choose."

"You're just too weak," Asuka nearly spat the words at him.

"I'm not weak… you just don't understand!"

"But you are weak," Rei said, in a voice which made it sound like a fact. "You are too weak even to end your own life."

"Tha- that was different, I-"

"You what?" Asuka interrupted. "You didn't have the guts?"

"No… It was just…" Shinji tried to think, to search for the answer to the question. "I don't know," he said at last, he looked down at his hands, feeling too shocked to do anything else. "I don't know," he looked up at the three figures in front of him, framed by the blackness that surrounded them all.

"I know why Shinji," Asuka said to him. He looked at the German girl, hoping for an answer, but he knew what she would say. "Because you are weak."

"Weak," Rei repeated.

"Weak," Misato echoed. "Fighting the black Eva's gave you the perfect chance to end your life. You could have not fought back, just let them kill you, if you were too weak to kill yourself."

"But you fought back," Rei said.

"But, if I had died, so would everybody else."

"Who cares? It's not like they like you, do they Shinji?" Asuka said.

"But, they still don't deserve to die."

"Your just too weak, Shinji, too weak to stand up for yourself. You just keep finding excuse all the time. You didn't _have _to fight the Eva's Shinji, you didn't _have _to save yourself Shinji, you didn't _have _to pilot Unit-01."

"I didn't want to!" Shinji screamed.

"Then don't," Rei said flatly.

"I won't, I won't pilot Eva ever again!"

"I'd like to see it," Asuka said scornfully.

"I will!" he shouted defiantly, clenching his fists by his sides. "I'll never pilot again! I'll never pilot again! I'll never pilot again!" Shinji woke up screaming once again. He gulped in deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart.

***

Ritsuko Akagi sat in her cell in NERV's brig. She had spent a long time in her cell, too long for her to remember. She had spent the time, not feeling guilty for what she had done, although Gendo hadn't expected her to, but steadily brooding over her hatred. Ritsuko Akagi was not confused at all by the events that had occurred all around her. In fact she knew more about them than the majority of the NERV staff put together. She knew exactly what had happened, and she knew exactly who to blame. Her commanding officer, and ex-lover, Gendo Ikari. The man had single-handedly ruined her entire life. It seemed it was the man's particular talent. He had drawn her mother into Project E, which had eventually resulted in the woman's death. Ritsuko hadn't cared much personally for her mother, but she was still her mother, and one of the most brilliant scientists she had ever met. Her loss had affected her more deeply than she had thought it would, and far more deeply than she had actually let on. And then Gendo had become involved directly with her own life. It was a while ago when they had first become romantically involved. Exactly when Ritsuko had long since forgotten, but it was definitely after her promotion to NERV's head scientist. At first it had seemed like a whirlwind romance, and Gendo seemed to return her affections. But as the "Scenario" began to advance and pick up speed he seemed to become less and less interested in her. They had sex frequently, but there was no love in it, it was purely physical. 

'Maybe it's just me?' she had thought at the time, 'perhaps I'm just losing interest in this relationship?' But she knew deep down that Gendo had never had any real feelings towards her. Indeed the project she helped him with was only just a way for him to be reunited with his long-lost wife. If the man was willing to destroy the world to meet another woman, how was she supposed to compete with love like that? And strangely enough it was that realisation that hurt her more than anything else. She had endangered the lives of so many people for this man and his project, she had neglected her friends to devote herself to its completion, and it was not a secret that she was disliked by many of the NERV staff. All of these had made her feel bad, but they seemed trivial compared to the pain she had felt when the truth dawned on her that the man she had done all of these things for felt nothing for her.

"I've come to see the prisoner," a voice outside her cell door said. She recognised the voice, it belonged to one of her oldest friends.

"Yes ma'am," a male guard posted outside her door said. She was the only person currently incarcerated within the NERV brig and so she had the privilege of a personal guard outside her cell. "Do you have clearance?"

"Yes." There was some rustling as she heard someone search their pockets and then unfold a piece of paper.

"Very well, go right in Major Katsuragi." Ritsuko heard the scraping of metal as the doors locks slid back and the door swung inwards. Misato stepped into the room. It looked quite cramped, in fact the bed seemed to take up half the room. As her eyes adjusted to the dark in the room she saw that a blonde woman sat on the bed, leaning forward with her elbows resting on her thighs and her arms hanging limply between her legs. She was staring at the floor, her hair falling forward to obscure most of her face.

"You can leave us now," Misato said to the guard, who was patiently standing at the door.

"If you need any help-" the guard began.

"I won't," Misato cut him off. The guard nodded and closed the door.

"Well, well, well, Misato Katsuragi what brings you here?" Ritsuko said with some venom to her words. She looked at the purple haired woman out of the corner of her eye.

"Ritsuko," Misato said as a greeting, ignoring what Ritsuko had just said. She knew that Ritsuko would be difficult to talk to. Being locked in a prison cell for a long period of time wouldn't exactly do your social skills any good. Misato began to question her judgement in coming to see her old friend.

"What is it you want to know then?" she asked wearily. She sat up straight on the bed and turned to look at Misato. "Doubtless you've been stumped by something and need my skill, why else would you have came here?"

"No, Ritsuko, I just need to talk to you, as a friend," Misato said, trying to sound as sincere as she could. "It's about Shinji."

"What's wrong with the boy now then? Has his feelings been hurt again?" she said, sounding almost disgusted.

"Look Ritsuko, I'm worried about the boy, I just need someone to talk to about it," she pleaded. "So please, can you just listen?" Ritsuko stared at Misato for a long while, and then leaned back against the wall and sighed. Misato realised this was as close to a "Yes," as she was going to get out of her. Misato sat down on the bed next to Ritsuko, leaning against the wall and staring at the opposite wall, just like her old friend was doing. "I think I've lost touch with him, Ritsu."

"How do you mean?" she asked, half-heartedly.

"He just always seems detached from everything. He doesn't want to speak to anybody… especially not me. He never shows any emotions now, he just always seems sad about everything. I think all the things that have happened to him over the past year have been too much for him to handle. He seemed to be coming out of his shell, and then…" she trailed off.

"The hedgehog's dilemma," Ritsuko said quietly.

"It looks like you were right," the purple haired woman agreed sadly. "But I just don't know what to do now. I've tried talking to him, but that hasn't helped at all. And I can't just leave him alone, he's spent too long on his own already, and that just seems to make him worse."

"What do you think is causing this?" she asked, turning her head to look at her companion.

"Too many things to count," Misato sighed in dismay. "Kaworu's death, all that's happened to Asuka, all that's happened to R-" she stopped herself, realising she had nearly accidentally blamed Ritsuko for Shinji's problems. Ritsuko turned her head away again, staring off into the corner of the room. Misato stayed silent for a while, peering at Ritsuko out of the corner of her eye, wondering how she would react.

"The boy certainly has some problems," Ritsuko said after a while, turning back to look at her old friend. Misato noticeably relaxed, feeling that Ritsuko had forgiven her for her slip of the tongue. "Perhaps his problems are too big for you to handle."

"I just wish I could do something for him."

"I know you care for the boy, you took him in and lived with him for nearly a year now, you were bound to develop some kind of bond with him. But torturing yourself over him isn't going to do either of you any good. Just act normally around him, like you used to, a good environment for him may be all he needs."

"I don't think the current situation is going to help then," Misato sighed again.

"What situation?" Ritsuko asked, sounding intrigued.

"You don't know?"

"I don't get much information in here," Ritsuko told her.

"Well SEELE seem to have had enough of the Commander and want to remove him, by force."

"So Gendo is finally getting his comeuppance?" Ritsuko said. She made no attempt to hide her gladness. The fact that she seemed to care more about Gendo's death than the lives of everyone in the Geofront made Misato feel decidedly uneasy.

"Well, not quite," she said, noticing a small smile forming on her friends face.

"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked, sounding deflated.

"We were attacked, last night, by some of the Eva series. Now as powerful as they are it seemed, I don't know, wrong, that SEELE had only sent two of them to attack us. I had expected SEELE to launch a full attack, throw all their forces into it. The battle wasn't easy, but I had expected SEELE to only attack if they were sure of their victory. It just seemed clumsy, the whole attack seemed badly planned, the mass production Eva's didn't even have any support."

"Hmm…" Ritsuko seemed to ponder this for a while.

"What do you think could be going on?"

"I'm not sure, as I said I get little information down here, the situation could have changed a lot since I was put in here." The two friends sat in silence for a while. "So how are you coping? Aside from Shinji."

"I don't know, I guess I just try to get on with it, and try not to think about… all the things that have happened."

"Any luck with your… 'research?'" Ritsuko asked, putting emphasis on the last word.

"Some, I've discovered what really happened fifteen years ago."

"So you know the truth about… everything now, I guess." Misato nodded. "So now you know, what do you plan to do?"

"I don't know, I don't even know if I can do anything," Misato admitted dejectedly.

"I have…" Ritsuko began, staring hopefully at her friend, but then she returned to looking at the opposite wall. "No, it doesn't matter." The two friends sat in silence once again.

***

Rei looked out of the window in her apartment, staring at the horizon. She didn't know why she was staring at the horizon, but she was. Her eyes looked at the top of the mountains in the distance, tracing along their peaks and the valleys between them, noticing how they intersected the sky. 

'The sky,' she thought idly. She laid her head down on her arms, which were folded on her windowsill, letting the cool breeze blow on her face and through her hair. She had spent a lot of time over the past week staring out of her window at the world around her. Again she didn't know why, but she had a lot of time on her hands and not much to do with it. In the past she had entertained herself with reading, and occasionally swimming. But she had read all the books in her apartment, and the swimming pool, along with the rest of the school, and the majority of Tokyo-3, had been destroyed. By her, ironically enough. And she felt no desire to find more books to read, or to swim in the large lake that had replaced Tokyo-3. So Rei passed the time by observing. She had watched as flocks of birds had made their nests in the ruined buildings, still jutting out of the lake at awkward angles. And she had watched many sunrises and sunsets. She didn't really enjoy just sitting and watching, but again what else was there to do? The sun was setting again, drawing to a close another day. The sky changed through various hues of pink, orange and then to a dark red, as it sank below the horizon. 'Red,' she thought, 'the colour I hate.' But she no longer felt as sure about that statement as she used to. Gendo's influence upon her had been extensive, and now, as she began to look back on her life, she doubted many aspects of herself. 'Am I myself?' she thought. 'Or just a doll.' She looked at the small chest of drawers by her bed. The usual items were on top of it, a steel tray, which carried a beaker full of water, and his glasses. His glasses that he had damaged saving her. His glasses that she had kept, to remind herself of happy times with the man she had looked on as a father. But those memories were no longer happy. Whenever she thought of those memories, it felt as if they had happened to a different person. The way he treated her now, was nothing like how he had treated her before. She picked up the glasses with both hands, letting them rest in the palms of her hands. She brought them close to her face, as if studying them to try to find an answer to something. An almost puzzled look crossed her face for a moment, and then her expression returned to the neutral one she usually wore. She opened up a drawer and placed the glasses inside. She closed the drawer and then resumed her vigil of the world outside. The sun had disappeared completely behind the mountains in the distance, turning the sky a dark blue, and shading the earth below a similar colour. She watched as stars in the sky blinked into existence, punctuating the darkness of the vast sky. As she watched her body seemed to become weary, and she realised she had not slept since the previous night, having missed sleep due to the attack on the Geofront. She closed her window and went to bed, trying not to think of her failed attempt to talk to Shinji.

***

Misato Katsuragi was also feeling weary, she too hadn't gotten any sleep last night, and the stresses of organising the defence of the Geofront were beginning to take their toll on her. She fumbled with the keys to her apartment, eventually managing to get them into the keyhole and open the front door. She stepped inside and took her shoes off as soon as she could. Standing in heels for several hours straight had also taken its toll on her feet. She wriggled her toes in an attempt to rid her feet of the dull ache that seemed to be inhabiting them. Although she felt tired, she also felt hungry, and her hunger seemed more urgent to her than her need for sleep. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a microwave meal from the fridge and placed in the microwave after reading the instructions on the back. She set the timer to correct length of time and pressed the 'start' button. She leaned back against the cupboards along the kitchen walls and tried to relax.

'It's times like these when I really wish I'd kept some beer around the place,' she thought, although she knew she didn't mean it. She looked around the kitchen, trying to pass the time the microwave signalled her meal was ready. The place looked clean enough, which was astounding since Shinji had never done his chores for the past week. If there had been such a lapse in his duties about six months ago the place would be unrecognisable. But Shinji wasn't the only person who had changed. Her eyes fell on the other fridge in the kitchen. It had been about a week since that had been used as well. 'I wonder how Pen-Pen is doing? Hikari will be taking good care of him I suppose.' She heard a door slide open in the apartment, which startled her slightly. She looked through the kitchen door into the living room. Shinji walked through the living room to the bathroom, wearing a pair of black shorts and a white vest. 'He must have came home to get some rest I suppose,' she thought. Her mind wandered to the conversation she had had with Ritsuko. 'I guess it's best if I don't bother him tonight, he'll have had a rough day.' She looked back at the microwave, the counter on the microwave told her she only had to wait another minute before her meal was ready. She heard the toilet flush and looked back out towards the living room. She saw Shinji walk past the kitchen once again, but this time he paused when he was opposite Misato, he turned his head to look at her, his face still betraying no emotion. He stared at her for a long while. Misato wondered what to do. "Shinji…" she said, in a questioning tone of voice, trying to get him to say something.

"I don't want to," he stated flatly. Misato was quite shocked by this, he sounded very determined, although she didn't know what he didn't want to do. "I don't want to pilot Eva ever again," he said, in that same tone of voice. She stared back at him, trying to think of something to say. The way he had said it sounded so forceful she doubted she could convince him otherwise. She looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping he would change his mind. "Not ever," he said finally, and walked back towards his bedroom.

"Oh, Shinji," she said sadly under her breath. 'Why did you have to do this now?' Behind her the microwave beeped.

****

End of the second day

Authors Notes:

Well, it took longer than expected to get this part finished, I know I said it might take a while but this is ridiculous. It's all my fault, if I had started writing it earlier, instead of screwing about for a month doing nothing, then this probably would have been up in about a week. Okay, thank you's once again: The Deftones, for writing the fantastic song "Hexagram" which inspired the fight scene (I hope you liked it!) Bowburn, once again, just 'cos he asked nicely really. Anyone who reviewed the first two parts, thanks a bunch guys and guyettes! And you for reading this thing.

Also mad props(???), a whole lotta kudos, and copious amounts of thank you's goes to my pre-reader Andre Laval, who did a fantastic job despite suffering computer crashes, exams, and my short comings.

The next chapter might take any amount of time to finish, but I'll try to get it done quicker that this chapter.


	4. The Third Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The third day:

Hurt

Misato took another sip of her coffee, trying not to burn her lips on the hot liquid, as she walked into Terminal Dogma. She hadn't got much sleep the night before and she needed the coffee to keep her awake. Shinji had still been asleep, or at least still in his room, when she had left, so she hadn't got the chance to speak to him this morning.

'Perhaps it's for the best,' she had thought when she left the apartment. 'What could I say to him?' Shinji's decision to never pilot Eva again had been a shock to her. Certainly he had tried to leave twice before, once after the fourth Angel, and then again after the thirteenth. Both times she could see his reasons for leaving. But each time he had returned to NERV, returned to her. But this time she doubted if he would, for this time she had been one of the reasons he had decided to leave. Her decision to force him to pilot Eva against the two mass produced Evangelions that had attacked two nights ago was necessary at the time. Or so she told herself. But she still felt guilty about it. She had felt guilty about it from the moment she had ordered the section 2 agent to take him to the Eva cages. She sighed to herself.

"Good morning Major Katsuragi," Maya greeted her chirpily. Misato wondered how the woman had the energy to sound so happy. She had still been busily working last night when Misato had left, so she must have slept even less than Misato.

"Good morning Maya," she returned the greeting, her voice sounding slightly hoarse. She thought it was too early in the morning for formalities, so she had skipped calling the woman by her rank. "Any new developments?"

"None so far," the shorthaired woman replied. "Analysis on the mass produced Evangelion is still ongoing, and we have received no information yet on SEELE's movements."

"Very well, inform me when new information comes up," Misato responded, after pondering over the information for a while.

"Major Katsuragi, ma'am!" Aoba called out, trying to get Misato's attention.

"Yes?" She turned to look at the tech sitting further along to her right. He didn't seem to have weathered the night as well as Maya had. His usually tidy and clean looking hair seemed dishevelled and greasy today.

"I wouldn't be able to talk to you, confidentially?" he whispered over to her. Misato walked over to him and leaned over, pretending to look at something on the screen in front of him. There was nobody around to overhear the conversation, but Misato knew that section 2 were very good at spying on people, so she took no chances.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"I've heard that SEELE have attacked us because the Commander has turned against them. What do you know about this?" he asked, never taking his eyes off the screen in front of him.

"About as much as you, sorry," Misato lied. In reality she knew nearly everything about SEELE's plans. Kaji's research, along with some investigation of her own, had led her to discover nearly every secret SEELE and NERV had. But she was still unsure as to the Commander's motives. Had he just had a change of heart, or was it something else? "If I find out anything though…" she trailed off.

"Thanks, ma'am."

"Just notify me if anything comes up," Misato said aloud to the bridge staff. She stood up straight, dropped her drained polystyrene cup in a nearby bin, and headed off to get another cup of coffee.

***

Rei had been expecting the call, and so when the phone in her apartment had rang she was already fully dressed, and had been awake for several hours. Even before the NERV employee on the other end of the phone had begun to speak she knew what she would have to do. And indeed as Misato had explained to her in Terminal Dogma Rei was to report to the clone Eva bodies for synch testing with Unit-02. Her work as an Evangelion pilot, it appeared, was not yet over. As the blue haired girl stood in front of one of the elevators in the Geofront, waiting for it to arrive to transport her from Terminal Dogma to the level of the Geofront where the clone bodies were housed, she thought about what this meant to her.

'Do I have purpose now?' she thought. 'Or am I merely being used?' She knew that she was the only viable pilot available at such short notice. Especially since the destruction of the school led to all the potential pilots leaving Tokyo-3. Rei was still unsure, however, whether they wanted her solely as a pilot and cared little for her otherwise. Of course this also gave her the opportunity to set herself apart from her 'predecessors,' to do something that would at least get her remembered as a singular being and not as "just another clone." But it also put her life at risk, something that she had to take a lot more seriously now. A 'ping' from the elevator signalled its arrival. The metal doors slid open and Rei started forward to step into the elevator, but stopped suddenly. Her eyes fell on the elevators occupant, a boy with brown hair, the same age as her, but slightly taller. He stood to one side of the metal box of the elevator, his head facing down, staring at the floor. Rei composed herself and stepped into the elevator. Standing adjacent to Shinji she pressed the button to take her to her required floor. The doors slid shut leaving the two pilots together in the elevator. Rei stared at the cold metal doors in front of her, her arms hanging down, with her hands clasped in front of her. The only sound was the constant drone of the elevator in motion.

"Ikari," Rei began, breaking the silence. Shinji seemed to jerk slightly, as if startled. Rei continued to stare at the doors in front of her, trying to think of something to say. "Ikari, I…" her voice trailed off again as she struggled to think of something to say to the boy. "I would like to help you," she said, not knowing why. "You have done many things for me in the past, and I would like to repay you." Rei waited, hoping for a reply from Shinji. She continued to stare at the elevator doors, only seeing Shinji out of the corner of her eye. She squeezed her hand slightly, and bit her lip. "Because that is what friends do. Because we are friends, correct?" She looked at Shinji, it looked like he hadn't moved at all. He was still standing staring at the ground, his eyes looking slightly wider than before. His arms still hung by his sides, except his hand was clutching at his trousers, bunching some of the fabric up in his fist. At first Rei thought he was angry, but his face betrayed no such emotion. 'Have I offended him?' she thought. "Ikari?" she asked, trying to provoke some kind of response from him. As she stared at him she heard the elevator slow down to a stop. The metal doors slid open. Shinji released his grip on his trousers, although his hand still remained pressed against his leg. He looked up at the wall opposite, in the corridor outside, to check the floor number written on the wall. He took a jerky step forward, and then walked out of the elevator and down the corridor. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator Rei returned to looking at the metal doors as they slid shut once again. The elevator continued its journey further into the Geofront.

***

Misato watched as Maya quickly opened programs that would record the results of the synch test. This test would be important, not only because it would prove whether or not one of the pilots was compatible with Unit-02 besides Asuka. The test would also be important because, with Unit-00 gone, and Shinji refusing to pilot Unit-01, Rei was the only pilot they had left. Rei needed to be able to successfully synch with Unit-02 for NERV to have any chance of standing up against SEELE. Misato knew they also had Unit-01 available, but there was little point in Rei trying to pilot it. The last time Rei had tried, during the attack by the fourteenth Angel, Unit-01 had rejected her. It had been quite a while since then, but Misato knew the result would be the same if they tried again. Somehow that Eva had some kind of link to Shinji. If he wouldn't pilot it, then no one would.

"Ready to commence compatibility testing," Maya announced, over the din caused by other NERV analysts busily completing their preparations for the test.

"Preparations are complete," an analyst reported. Maya pressed a button on her work console to open a line to Rei sitting in the entry plug.

"Rei we are ready to begin," she told her.

"I am prepared," Rei replied solemnly.

"Commencing compatibility test!"

"Compatibility test commencing," an analyst echoed Maya's announcement to make sure everyone in the room had heard. Misato watched as the assembled NERV employee's got to work starting up the clone Eva torso and initiating the start-up procedure for synchronisation. A large display of various boxes began to light up, moving from one box to the next like a snake winding its way across the display.

"Synchronisation commencing," Maya announced. Misato watched as the maze of boxes continued to light up, winding back and forth in sequence. "Approaching threshold!" 

"Approaching threshold," the analyst once again repeated Maya's announcement. The sequence of lights approached one box that was bigger than the others, and wavered there. Everyone in the Pribnow box had their eyes fixed on the display. And finally, as if breaking through an obstruction, the light passed through the large box which marked the threshold, and continued on unabated to illuminate the remaining boxes. Misato exhaled, releasing a breath she didn't realise she had been holding in.

"Synchronisation achieved," Maya stated.

"Synchronisation has been achieved."

"Good work," Misato congratulated Maya.

"We just have to wait now," she informed her superior. "Rei's synchronisation rate is quite low at the minute, but it should increase over time. She'll have to stay in there for a few more hours yet."

"That's okay. I just hope her synch rate rises to a sufficient level."

"I suppose we're going to need all the help we can get to stand up to SEELE," Maya commented, turning around in her chair to face Misato. "And having two working Eva's is better than just having one."

"Yeah," Misato replied half-heartedly. Misato hadn't told anyone about Shinji's decision to never pilot again. She didn't see why she should. Shinji would probably be going to see his father today to officially announce his decision. And the rest of the NERV employee's would find out eventually. Another reason she hadn't informed people of the development was because of her hopes that Shinji would change his mind.

"Are you okay, Major Katsuragi?" Maya asked her, noticing her superior had suddenly become very quiet.

"I'm fine," the purple haired woman replied. "Well about as fine as somebody can be in these circumstances," she managed a weak smile.

"Yeah, it sure has been hectic lately." Maya seemed to think for a while. "Have you seen Dr. Akagi recently?" she asked, concern showing in her voice. Misato decided whether or not to tell the truth to her. She knew that Ritsuko had been her mentor, and quite a role model to her.

"Yes, I talked to her yesterday," she finally confessed.

"How is she doing?" Once again Misato considered what she should tell her. Ritsuko's detainment had certainly not improved her demeanour, but what effect would that news have on Maya?

"She's not doing too well," Misato answered, finally settling on her response. "But I don't think anyone could cope well if they're locked up."

"Oh," Maya replied, looking away from Misato for a moment. "But, I still can't believe that Dr. Akagi would destroy the Dummy Plug system. Especially after she worked so hard creating it." Although efforts were made to keep the incident quiet information always has a habit of getting around, even in a secret organisation such as NERV. Although Misato was secretly pleased that NERV failed at keeping a secret, she wished at least that Maya hadn't learned the truth. It was obvious from the tone in her voice, and the look on her face, that the news had been a shock to her.

'I guess nobody likes to find out the people we look up to aren't quite as saintly as we imagine them to be,' Misato thought. "I just suppose recent events affected her more than she let on," she offered as an explanation.

"I suppose so," the brown haired woman replied. She returned to monitoring the progress of the synch test displayed on her screen.

'Who am I kidding?' Misato thought. 'Recent events have affected everyone more than they've let on.'

"Hmm…" Maya murmured as she looked over the information displayed on the screen in front of her.

"Something the matter?" Misato inquired.

"Rei's synch rate hasn't increased by much. Although that's to be expected, it is the first time she has synched with Unit-02, but her synch rate should have increased more than this," Maya informed her.

"Will she be able to pilot Unit-02 in combat with this level?"

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"What's the problem?"

"It could be Unit-02 trying to reject Rei, or it could be the pilot," Maya offered.

"But Rei is usually always focussed on piloting when she's in an Eva," Misato thought out loud. "Let me speak to her."

"Yes, ma'am." Maya pressed the button on her console that would open a communication link to Rei in the replica entry plug.

"Rei can you hear me? Is something wrong?" Misato asked, leaning down closer to Maya's workstation in order to speak into the microphone located there.

"I apologise Major Katsuragi, I will attempt to focus fully on the task at hand," Rei answered, seemingly knowing the reason for Misato's questioning.

"Good, we need you to be able to synch properly with Unit-02."

"Very well." Rei nodded her acknowledgement, and tried to stop thinking about her encounter with Shinji. Misato stood back up, looking at the image of the blue haired girl on the screens along the wall. That same thought came back to her.

'Recent events have affected everyone more than they've let on. Maybe even Rei.'

***

Gendo Ikari sat alone in his office. Recent events had affected him, but he had been very careful not to show this. The situation he faced, if indeed he was correct, was one he and SEELE had worked very hard to avoid. His actions over the next few days had to be calculated and precise. He had little room for error. The fact that he did not know the full strength of his enemy did not help the situation.

"Ikari," Fuyutsuki drew his attention, interrupting his thoughts. Gendo looked up at the tall grey haired man standing in the doorway. "The pilot of Unit-01 is requesting to see you." Gendo nodded, signalling his subordinate to let the boy in. He had little spare time, and this interruption was something he could do without. Fuyutsuki disappeared into the office's lobby. A few moments later Shinji walked through the doors into the NERV commander's office. The boy faltered for a second, pausing as he entered the room, perhaps unsure whether to proceed. Gendo stared at the boy.

'How can this frail boy possibly be my son?' he thought, wondering how he had somehow played a part in bringing this person into existence. Eventually the boy gathered his resolve and walked further into the massive office until he was standing just a few feet away from his father's desk. Gendo noticed that the boy had not lifted his head even once. Even now, standing so close to him, he refused to make eye contact with him. "Yes?" he asked, some intrigue in his voice. Shinji stood silent for a few seconds.

"I… I don't want to pilot anymore…" he said weakly. He felt the heat from his father's glare intensify. There was absolute silence in the massive room. "I-I'm not going to pilot anymore," Shinji repeated himself, trying to sound more determined.

"Unacceptable," Gendo responded nearly instantaneously. His voice left little doubt that his decision was final.

"I-I won't do it." Shinji tried to re-assert himself, but he was unable to calm his nerves.

"NERV is in no condition to tolerate insubordination," he answered flatly. "You will remain the pilot of Unit-01 until I release you from your position." Gendo continued to stare at the boy, he noticed Shinji had balled his hands up into fists.

"I won't pilot it," he replied, some steel had crept into his voice.

"I have no time to waste on your petulance. I have important work to do. You will report back to Major Katsuragi for duty."

"I'm not going to pilot again. Never!" Shinji shouted out. He gritted his teeth together, and his breathing became ragged. Gendo was silent for a long time while he assessed the situation.

"What will you do if you don't pilot?" Gendo asked, breaking the long pause.

"I-I don't know," Shinji replied quietly. His breathing returned to normal, and his fists unclenched.

"If you will not pilot then you are useless to me. Your NERV clearance will be cancelled by the end of today." Shinji nodded his acknowledgement. "You are dismissed." Shinji stood for a few seconds in front of his father, as if considering something, and then turned and walked out of the office. He watched the boy leave over steepled fingers. Once Shinji was gone Gendo resumed his thoughts, factoring in the loss of one of the Evangelions. His prognostication was far from favourable.

***

"Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually grateful for a slow day at work," Hyuga Makato said.

"I'm with you there!" Aoba Shigeru shouted back from the corridor outside Terminal Dogma. "Did you say you wanted de-caff?"

"Are you mad?" Hyuga shot back.

"I see your point," his workmate replied as he pressed a button on the coffee machine. "So where's Maya? I know she had to oversee a synch test but I didn't think it would take this long," he asked as he walked over to Hyuga and handed him his cup of coffee.

"I think she has some presentation to do. Thanks," he replied as he accepted the steaming cup.

"Presentation?" Aoba asked as he sat down at the workstation next to Hyuga.

"Yeah, the Commander wanted to know the combat capabilities of that black Eva which attacked. The labs finished analysing it earlier and Maya has to present the findings to the senior officers today. She's probably preparing her notes or something." Aoba nodded and took a sip of his coffee.

"Damn that's hot!" he half-shouted half-screamed, nearly spraying his keyboard with coffee in the process. Hyuga eyed his cup suspiciously.

"I think I'll just leave that to cool for a while," he said slowly, placing the cup on the edge of his workstation.

"So you think there'll be more of them?" his friend asked, blowing on his coffee to try and cool it.

"Of what? Those black Eva's?" Aoba nodded. "I suppose so. There were two of them last time, so there'll probably be more next time they attack. That is if they attack again."

"You think they'll just leave us alone?" Aoba asked, his voice sounded hopeful.

"Well the Major seems to think SEELE won't let us off as easily as that. But you've always gotta think positive, right?"

"If you say so," the longhaired technician replied, rolling his eyes. "But I just can't believe they left that thing out there though."

"Huh?" Hyuga asked him, confused as to what he was referring to

"The dead Eva," he replied, sounding irritated. He typed a command into the keyboard and a picture of the side of one of the mountains around Tokyo-3 appeared. Sure enough the massive form of the winged Evangelion floated just above the side of the mountain, propped up by a grey Lance of Longinus embedded in the mountain side.

"Urgh," Hyuga audibly displayed his revulsion. "I wondered what they had done with it."

"Nothing, from what I can see," Aoba replied, closing the window which contained the grisly image. "I just wonder why they just left it there?"

"I think I overheard the Major saying something about not enough resources or something." Hyuga grabbed the cup of coffee, which seemed to have cooled down, and took a drink of it. "Really, there seems little point in getting rid of it. It would just use up time and effort, and I think getting the Geofront fully repaired and ready for another attack is more important."

"I suppose your right. But it's still a bit weird, it's like from medieval times when they used to put dead people outside castles to scare intruders off," Aoba replied.

"Well, maybe it'll scare off any more of those Eva's from attacking." The two friends sat in silence for a little while longer, sipping their coffees.

"So what do you thinks going to happen to us once all this is over?" Aoba broke the silence.

"Well it depends who wins," Hyuga stated.

"Come on, you just said to think positive."

"Well I guess NERV would be disbanded. I mean, with all the Angels dead it's completed its purpose, right? I suppose we'd be free to do whatever we want, as well as being unemployed. Why, what are you gonna do?"

"I don't know, I'll probably go to some guitar lessons."

"I thought you could play guitar?" Hyuga asked, sounding puzzled.

"So did I, but it turns out the air guitar and the electric guitar are more different than I had expected." Hyuga laughed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he dismissed his friends laughter, and then went back to his thoughts. "I'll probably go get another job too, a nice boring job, something part time probably. How about you?"

"I'm not sure myself. That degree in computer programming I got could get me a nice well-paid job. Get my own house, settle down, raise a family. You know, standard stuff."

"Raise a family, eh? So you got yourself a wife picked out already, huh?" Aoba sneered.

"No," Hyuga answered defensively.

"Oh really? So when you said 'dying beside you wouldn't be a bad way to go out,' to the Major you didn't really mean it did you?"

"W-What!?" Hyuga stammered in shock.

"Oh yeah, I heard you. You've got a thing for Major Katsuragi, haven't you?"

"You shut up about that," Hyuga answered angrily.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Aoba raised his hands to try and placate him. "I mean if I had half a chance I'd give it a go."

"Give what a go?" a familiar voice asked the two. They both froze and looked around, both dreading who they would find standing behind them.

"You scared the crap out of me!" Aoba shouted at Maya as his eyes fell on her. He breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't Misato standing behind them. Hyuga did likewise. 

"Jeez, I'm sorry," Maya apologised, wondering why they both looked so shook up. "I just came up here to collect some more information for the presentation," she told them.

"Oh, okay then," Hyuga answered, trying to calm his nerves. Maya sat down at her workstation and began pulling up tables of information. The other two analysts turned back to their computers and tried to be as quiet as they could while Maya continued with her work. They sat like this for a long while before Hyuga broke the silence.

"What the hell we're you thinking, shouting about stuff like that?" he whispered to Aoba. "What if that had been Misa- the Major!"

"Hey, you never saw her coming either," Aoba whispered back, trying to make it look like he was doing some work.

"What happens if she heard us?" Hyuga worried, terror creeping into his voice.

"She didn't hear us, if she did she probably wouldn't have said anything."

"But she could have just asked us what we wanted to have a go at for her own amusement," Hyuga replied, his speech speeding up with panic as more and more possibilities entered his head.

"Look, even if she had heard us Maya would never tell anybody. She isn't the kind of person to go about revealing secrets the whole time."

"I suppose you're right," Hyuga agreed. He stared nervously over at her as she continued to work at her computer.

"So just calm down," Aoba reassured him, confidence returning to his voice.

"Well I've got everything I need," Maya said, standing up. She indicated the clipboard in her hand laden with sheets of graphs and tables. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck Maya," Aoba said.

"Yeah, good luck," Hyuga said, managing an awkward smile. He watched his colleague walk out of the large control room before breathing a sigh of relief. He turned back to his computer, still suffering from a degree of shock.

"And besides," Aoba said, resuming their previous conversation. "If I were you I'd be more worried about me telling Misato what you think of her." He grinned as he saw his friend stare at him with fear filled eyes.

***

_"The song is good," the boy stated as he ceased his humming._

"Huh?" Shinji stared at the boy, looking puzzled. 'Who was this boy? Where had he come from?'

"Singing brings joy and revitalises the human soul. I think that song is the highest achievement of the Lilim culture. Don't you agree, Shinji Ikari?" The grey haired boy asked, turning to look at him. __

"How do you know my name?" Shinji asked, staring up at the boy. He was perched on top of a large rock, sitting down with his arms resting on his knees. Shinji had never met the boy before in his life, and yet he seemed familiar to him. Shinji felt he could trust this boy, even the fact that he knew his name didn't seem odd. His question was more out of interest than suspicion.

"Everyone knows your name," the boy replied, smiling. "I don't mean to sound rude, but you're rather ignorant of your own position."

"Oh, really?" Shinji said, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Who are you?" he asked, realising he didn't even know the boys name.

"I'm Kaworu, Kaworu Nagisa," he answered, his smile still beaming on his face. "I am like you," he continued, "one of the selected children, the fifth child."

"You're the fifth child?" he asked, startled by the news. He felt like bursting out into a smile himself at the news. This boy, who seemed so friendly towards him, was to be working at NERV alongside him. "Um, Mr. Nagisa," he began, trying to ask a question which he no longer remembered. The boy laughed.

"Call me Kaworu, Mr. Ikari," he told him, laughing at his new friend's formality which he playfully mimicked.

"Mr. Ikari," Shinji began, feeling flattered and embarrassed. "Oh no, you can call me Shinji." Kaworu laughed, noticing the boys reddening cheeks. 

The memory faded, and Shinji was left alone on the lakeshore. He sighed and hugged his knees closer to his chest. He watched the small waves as they gently lapped up against the shore, blurring the line between earth and water. The memory of the boy's body crumbling in his hand came back to him. He had thought feeling pain in Eva was the worst part about their feedback system, but the feeling of Kaworu's body being destroyed within his grip was far worse than anything he could have imagined. And so his happy times spent with Kaworu Nagisa no longer brought a smile to his face. 

But now he was free of it. Free of NERV, and Eva, and all the bad memories they carried with them. No longer would he take orders from his father. No longer would he pilot the giant organic creature called Unit-01, which had defined his existence over the past year. And deep down part of him hoped he would never see any of them ever again. Not his father, not Rei, not Ritsuko, not even Misato. He had considered confessing his feelings to his father, in that second before he turned to leave his office. To tell him how much he hated him for abandoning him as a child, for dragging him to NERV, for causing all the pain and suffering in his life. But he hadn't. And it didn't matter to him anymore, if he never saw his father again, never got the chance to tell him what his last living relative actually thought of him, he would still be happy. He was free from all the pain now, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Free," he whispered to himself. He sat on the lakeshore for a long while, until the sun began to disappear once again behind the mountains in the distance. And as he got up to leave he still hadn't figured out why the pain hadn't eased.

***

Maya Ibuki cleared her throat and stared around the conference room which was being used for the presentation. Not many people occupied the room. Commander Ikari and Commander Fuyutsuki were present, as expected. Major Katsuragi was also seated at the large table in the centre of the room. There were five other high-ranking members of NERV seated around the table from various divisions. Maya thought she could recognise the head of the technical division as well as the head of section 2.

"As you all probably know the Geofront was attacked two nights ago by two Evangelion's. An extensive analysis has been performed, and I can now present the results." Maya pressed a button on a small remote in her hand, causing the large screen on the wall behind her to display a picture of the Evangelion. "The battle capabilities of this Evangelion seem to be superior to that of the Evangelions currently under our control. As demonstrated against Unit-01 it is able to sustain heavy damage and still remain combat capable. The F-type equipment gives the model the capability to become airborne. This coupled with the S2 engine housed within the model means these Evangelions are essentially self-sufficient, just like the Angels were."

'She seems to be coping well,' Misato thought, as she watched the woman continue to reel off information about the Eva. Misato knew that Maya would be nervous. It was, after all, the first time she had done such a presentation. She had helped Ritsuko to prepare presentations before, but she had never had to stand up and actually deliver the information herself. She noticed that, despite her new position as 'acting head of science division' she hadn't changed her uniform. 'Perhaps she thinks her time as acting head will be a short period,' Misato wondered. 'She must have faith that Ritsuko won't be staying in the brig for too long.'

"The dummy plug system is also worthy of attention," Maya continued. The image on the screen changed to display the Eva's entry plug. The words "KAWORU.06" clearly stood out on the side of the red entry plug.

'Kaworu?' Misato wondered what the boy's name would be doing on the side of an Eva's entry plug.

"The dummy plug system seems to operate using clones of the boy known as Kaworu Nagisa, the seventeenth angel." She pressed the button on the remote once more and the image changed once again.

"What the hell?" Misato blurted out, jerking forward in her chair to stare at the image. The image on the screen was of a boy suspended in a large liquid-filled tube inside the entry plug. The boy was instantly recognisable as Kaworu Nagisa. But one thing about the boy that was different was that he had black skin; jet black. Misato realised that everyone in the room was staring at her. She saw that Maya was looking about nervously, unsure how to cope with the situation. "I'm sorry," she apologised, feeling guilty for causing complications for Maya during her first presentation. "Please carry on Lieutenant," Misato said as she sat back in her chair, composing herself once again.

"Uh, yes," Maya said, feeling slightly shocked at Misato's reaction. "We found a clone body of Kaworu Nagisa within the entry tube, being used in the same capacity as the Rei bodies were in our own dummy plug system. As you can see his skin appears to be black, but I will address that later. These dummy plugs are different to the version we used however. The NERV dummy plugs were remote controlled from clone Rei's, whereas the SEELE dummy plug seems to be directly controlled by the Kaworu clone within. This system means the response times of the Eva are faster, and there is less chance of communication breakdown between Eva and dummy plug." Once more the image changed to display the large flat bladed sword the Eva's had used, alongside a grey Lance of Longinus. "Their weaponry is also more advanced than ours. SEELE appear to have been successful in producing replica Lance of Longinus'. The Lance appears to be able to transform itself into this sword configuration, but as demonstrated in the battle with Unit-01, it is the most dangerous in its original form. The replica Lances appear to possess the same powers as the original, being able to penetrate AT fields. These Eva's combine advanced technology with Angel technology to create an efficient and deadly fighting machine. It's ability to sustain massive damage and regenerate means that the only real way to destroy them is to destroy the core, located in the chest area. However we believe destroying the dummy plug could also cause the Eva to shut down, meaning there are two possible ways to destroy the Eva." Many of the NERV officers around the table nodded in satisfaction, happy that they now knew how to fight this enemy.

"You mentioned about the black skin?" Gendo prompted her.

"Uh, yes," she faltered again, thrown off guard by her Commander's inquisitiveness. "When analysing the Eva's skin to determine its consistency we discovered that it carried a slight charge. This energy residue seems to be what causes the discolouring of the skin. At first we thought it might be a by-product of the S2 engine but we have yet to determine that."

"Very well," Gendo nodded.

"Are there any questions?" Maya asked, her voice seemed to convey the hope that nobody would ask anything. The officers around the table looked around at each other before looking back at Maya, signalling that no questions were to be asked today.

"This meeting is adjourned," Gendo announced before standing up. The other officers stood as well before they filed out of the room.

"You did well today," Misato congratulated Maya as she left the room.

"Oh, thanks," she smiled at her as she continued to gather up various sheets from the conference table. "I don't know how Dr. Akagi does this all the time. I don't think I could stand it," she said, looking visibly relieved that the ordeal was over.

"Well she just had a lot of experience at it, it should get easier with time."

"Thanks," Maya said again. Misato walked out of the room leaving Maya to finish collecting her notes.

'More than one Kaworu?' Misato thought to herself as she made her way to her car. 'But surely there can't be more than one of an Angel? And why did the Commander ask to have the Eva analysed, he has seen the blueprints for them, hasn't he? He did take part in their construction after all. And why was he so interested in the black skin?' All these questions plagued Misato as she travelled home. 'Something definitely isn't right here.'

***

Shinji had come back to the apartment to collect his belongings. Once he had arrived, however, he had no desire to leave. Not tonight at least.

'I will leave tomorrow,' he thought to himself, as he stared out from the balcony at the remains of Tokyo-3. A ruined city, to match his ruined life. The lake seemed perfectly still in the starlit darkness of the night. The city looked so tranquil, probably because the city was now all but deserted. But the city held memories for him, both good and bad. Part of him wondered whether he should leave this place. Certainly it would be a symbolic severing of the place from his life, but he had spent the last year of his life in this city. It was his home. He had nothing to keep him here, but then again he had nothing elsewhere to take him from this place. Behind him he heard the door to the apartment open and the rustling of clothes as somebody took their jacket and shoes off. He didn't bother turning around to check who it was, he knew it would be Misato. He heard her footsteps approach the balcony, but she stopped before stepping out onto it. There was a long period of silence, several minutes, as Shinji continued to look out upon the city, leaning on the edge of the balcony. Misato leaned against the balcony doors, wondering whether to say anything to the boy. Would she help? What could she say?

"Shinji?" she began. He stayed still. She knew he had heard her, but she couldn't tell whether he was ignoring her, or just not replying. She ventured onto the balcony, leaning against the small wall at its edge alongside Shinji. "Did you speak to your father today?"

"Yes," he answered quietly, still staring out across the landscape.

"So… you've left NERV then?" He nodded. "So are you going to leave Tokyo-3?"

"Yes." Misato felt her heart sink.

"Where are you going to go?" she asked, worried how the boy would do by himself.

"I don't know."

"So when will you leave?"

"I don't know." The two were quiet once more. Misato didn't know what to do. She didn't want Shinji to leave, but would it be any better for him to stay? She felt responsible for him, she was his guardian after all, and she wished she could do something for him. The fact that her duty at NERV compelled her to try and get Shinji to pilot Unit-01 again didn't help either.

"Shinji, listen, are you really sure this is for the best?" Misato asked. Shinji remained silent. "I don't know if this will make any difference to you, but I think you deserve to know the truth." Shinji didn't move, nothing indicated that he was paying attention to what Misato was telling him. "Fifteen years ago second impact was intentionally engineered to minimise damage to the human race. Adam had to be reduced to embryonic form before the other Angels awoke. You see Shinji, like the Angels, mankind was spawned from a being called Lilith. So the Angels are just like us, or what we could have been."

"What does that matter now?" Shinji asked.

"NERV was created by SEELE to engineer third impact, to accelerate man's evolution. We've been lied to all this time. NERV never had any intention of preventing third impact, just making sure it went in our favour."

"Why are you telling me this?" Shinji asked, his voice sounding uneasy. "I don't want to know."

"Something is wrong," she continued on, trying to make her point. "The Commander has turned against SEELE, but something more is happening, something I don't understand." They stood in silence once again. "Are you really sure you want to leave?"

"Yes," Shinji answered.

"Well, so long as you are happy…" her voice trailed off.

"I'll never be happy," he replied, shocking Misato somewhat. "Somebody I once knew told me that life was pain. He was right." Misato stared at the boy in bewilderment, she knew he was depressed, but she had no idea he felt this way. Shinji stood up straight and turned round to face the balcony doors. "Good night, Misato," he said quietly before walking off towards his bedroom. Misato watched the boy as he walked away from her, still reeling from what he had said. She turned to stare once more out across the landscape.

'He really is hurting,' she thought. 'He's just trying to get away from the pain anyway he can.' Her vision began to blur as tears formed in her eyes. "Oh, Shinji," she whispered to herself, "I'm so sorry."

****

End of the third day

Authors Notes: 

Well this chapter was finished pretty quickly, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get them all done this quickly so be thankful for this one! 

Once again I gotta thank my pre-reader for making some good suggestions for this chapter. I've also got to thank basically anybody who's fanfics I've read recently (Ryoma, Rakna etc.) you've definitely helped improve my writing. I have to give as much thanks as is possible in writing to Kami (Or KK White as she's called on FFN) who has done some excellent fanart for my website (Well, I think its excellent she didn't seem too happy with it, which is hard to believe if you actually see it.) You can find it on the Genesis Crisis section of my website, it's soooo cool! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've also got to thank anybody who's read this, and especially those that have reviewed it. This story isn't getting much attention but those who do read it always leave nice comments, thanks!

Also I fell into the trap that the if you could play air guitar then electric guitar is just as easy, so that's where that joke came from (That and the fact that I can swear I never saw Aoba play an actual guitar throughout Eva.)

Damn, these Author's notes are getting longer! I'd better go now. I'm going on holiday for two weeks pretty soon, so don't expect the next chapter for about a month.


	5. The Fourth Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The fourth day:

Forget about Tomorrow

"I'll never be happy," Misato said to herself, repeating Shinji's statement. His words the previous night had shaken her, and they had stayed with her all through the night. She sat back in her chair around the small table in the room, idly watching the rice boil on the other side of the kitchen. She had dug out an old cookbook somebody had given her when she had moved to Tokyo-3. She suspected it was from Ritsuko, as some kind of joke, but there was no signature on the book to say who it was from so she couldn't be sure. She had found a recipe for a traditional Japanese breakfast of steamed rice, miso soup, and saké. However she had decided to forego the saké. It had been a long while since she had eaten a good breakfast, especially due to everything that had occurred over the last few days. She had decided to treat herself, even in such a small way, in the hopes it would help lift her spirits. Of course in order to have enough time to prepare the meal she had forced herself to get up early. The early rise, coupled with the little sleep she had got, had meant that she was in worse shape than she had been the previous night. Her hair had seemed very unhealthy, greasy and tangled, when she woke. So she had taken a shower early in the hopes of trying to improve her image. It had helped, but not much. Her face was beginning to look haggard, and she was finding it hard to keep concentrated on one thing for too long. The stresses of home and work were beginning to take their tolls on the NERV operations director.

"Black skin?" she thought aloud. 'Why had the commander been so interested in the black skin? Maya's explanation that it was caused by the artificial S2 engine sounds plausible, but there is definitely something that is going on here which the Commander wants to keep secret.' She thought back over all the information she had gathered since receiving the information Kaji had already discovered. 

"Kaji…" she whispered his name. She had tried to forget that man, but it had proved nearly impossible. Every time she pushed his memory to the back of her mind, it always resurfaced somehow. So she blocked the memory once again, knowing full well it would return to haunt her sometime. 

She didn't know too much about the exact process of third impact, but what she did know was that NERV seemed to have everything it needed to start the event. But for some reason no action had been taken towards it. 'Is that why SEELE is attacking NERV? Has the Commander decided not to go through with Third Impact after all?' The thought seemed to make sense, but if he had truly abandoned third impact why had he not destroyed everything that could cause it? Was it because he couldn't destroy them? She knew that in order to stave off SEELE's assault the Evangelions were needed. But what of the gigantic white creature in the lower levels of the Geofront? That seemed to be critical to instrumentality, and yet it had not been destroyed, and in its current condition it would not be hard to eliminate it. At the minute she didn't have the information she needed to answer any of these questions. Only time would provide the answers she wanted.

The sound of furious bubbling broke her from her reverie. Her eyes focused on the pan sitting on top of the oven just in time to see water was boiling over the sides. She cried out in panic and quickly made for the knobs on the oven to turn the flame down, just as the phone began to ring. "Crap!" she cursed, as she hurried to turn the heat off and rushed over to the phone in the living room. 

"Hello?" she said, as she answered the phone.

"Major Katsuragi?" A timid female voice on the other end asked.

"Yes?" Misato asked, wondering why NERV would be calling this early in the morning. Her instincts told her that something big must be going on.

"Um, we have urgent need for you at the Geofront, m-ma'am," the woman on the other end began, trying to break the news as painlessly as she could.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to hide her disappointment of being robbed out of her breakfast.

"We have reports of, um… activity, at the other NERV bases, ma'am."

"What kind of activity?"

"I don't know ma'am, that's all the information I have been given. But Lieutenant Ibuki says it's urgent, ma'am." There was silence from Misato for a long while.

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can," she answered. She put the phone down, and looked into the kitchen. She could still hear slight bubbling sounds coming from the pan full of rice. She sighed to herself. 'Looks like there's going to be no breakfast for me this morning.' She was about to go to the pan and throw out its contents when a thought struck her. 'Maybe Shinji would want it?' Her eyes drifted to the room marked 'Shinji's Lovely Suite.' He was still in his room. Shinji had never been out of his room in the mornings for a long while. Misato didn't know if he was just sleeping, or if he was trying to avoid her. She tried to put the thoughts from her mind and get ready to leave. After grabbing her jacket she hastily scribbled a note to Shinji, telling him the food was there if he wanted it, and left it on the table in the living room. She didn't know whether he would want it, but maybe if he accepted it would go some way towards patching up their relationship. She sighed once again, and then scooped up her car keys from the table and headed out of the apartment.

***

"We've just received a report from the NERV branch in Hamburg," Hyuga reported.

"What are they saying?" Maya asked.

"The same as the others. They are under attack from an unknown enemy and require urgent assistance."

'Where is Major Katsuragi? I can't handle all this,' Maya thought, trying to hide her panic.

"Beijing branch has just transmitted a distress call also," Aoba informed Maya.

"I've lost all transmission from NERV-04 in Massachusetts," Hyuga reported.

"Do you want us to reply to the distress calls?" Aoba asked, turning around in his chair to look at Maya. Maya was standing behind the two analysts watching the situation unfold on the large holographic displays in the centre of the Geofront's command tower. The longhaired technician knew that Maya would be finding it hard to cope with the situation so he and Hyuga were trying their best to help her out.

'What would Major Katsuragi do now? And where is the Commander, or the sub-Commander?'

"What's the situation?" Misato Katsuragi demanded as she strode into the control room. Maya seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of the major. In fact she seemed so relieved at the older woman's appearance that she hadn't paid attention to what she had said.

"Approximately an hour ago we received a distress call from our branch in Marseilles," Hyuga said quickly, sparing Maya from having to be asked for a report again. "Since then all the other major NERV branches, excluding Matsushiro, have also sent out distress calls."

"Why are they sending distress calls to us?" Misato asked, wondering why the other SEELE loyal branches would be asking for help from the traitorous Tokyo-3 branch.

"It appears to be a general broadcast to all NERV installations and nearby military bases," Maya answered, managing to compose herself. "They aren't asking specifically for our help."

"So what problems are they reporting?" Misato asked. Her military training dictated that she should find out as much as she could about the situation before acting on it.

"They have all reported their MAGI's being infiltrated and then their locations being physically assaulted by Mass Production model Evangelions."

'Hmm, a textbook infiltration tactic,' Misato concluded. "It could simply be a trap, in order to lure our forces from the Geofront. Have we received confirmation on any of the information received?"

"Well we have received information that forces are being sent to each of the NERV bases from nearby military installations."

'Idiots,' Misato thought. 'What good can soldiers do against an Eva? If it were a hoax then SEELE would realise that sending troops to fight Eva's would look unrealistic. But then again why would SEELE come up with such an elaborate hoax, surely there has to be easier ways to try and force our hand?'

"We've recently lost all contact with branches in Massachusetts and Marseilles, ma'am," Maya reported, seeing that her superior was unlikely to say anything soon.

'But, if this was genuine, why would SEELE be attacking its own bases?' Misato wondered, making a mental note of Maya's information. "Just sit tight for the minute. At the speed those bases are falling I don't think we could get there in time to help them anyway. The best thing to do is to send a message to Matsushiro, tell them to expect a similar attack, and prepare ourselves for an attack. If this was some attempt at a trap then we have nothing really to worry about."

"And if it wasn't a trap?" Maya asked tentatively.

"Then we had better be ready for an attack when this mysterious force comes for us," Misato stated grimly.

***

"You are Gendo Ikari, are you not?" the monolith marked SEELE-01 asked. Gendo simply remained silent. "I know of you Ikari, and I know that you will most likely know who I am," Keel continued. Fuyutsuki looked at his friend and commanding officer, hoping to get an explanation for these odd events.

"So, you have taken over SEELE," Gendo stated.

"Indeed, I know all their secrets now. I know you harbour what I seek, and you must surely know that I will come for it eventually. Even as we speak I am growing in strength."

"You know I will fight you, though," Gendo replied calmly.

"Of course, it would be against your nature not too. However your colleagues also fought, and they fell. They had weapons greater than yours, so what chance do you believe you stand?"

"But we know what you are, and we know what you are after," Gendo stated.

"That information will do you no good. The members of SEELE knew what I was…" Keel's voice trailed off. Suddenly all the monoliths in the room became active.

"And look at them now," all the members of SEELE spoke in unison.

"The old men of SEELE we're fools. They had no back up plan in case Operation Nagisa failed," Gendo stated.

"I know that you have no such plan Ikari. And even if you did, nothing could stand up to the might of eight mass produced Evangelions," the collective voices retorted.

"You cannot yet have eight," Gendo countered.

"No, but I soon will," the voices answered, a confident tone in each of their voices. "Know this Ikari, I am your destruction, and there is nothing you can do." The members of SEELE broke out into manic laughter, almost deafening the two figures standing in the centre of the circle of monoliths. And then the laughing abruptly stopped as all the monoliths disappeared into the shadows of the room simultaneously. There was silence in the dark room for a long while, before Fuyutsuki voiced his thoughts.

"Was that _it_ then?" he asked.

"Yes, I believe that was the last. If it has taken SEELE already, then we are at a disadvantage, for it knows more about us, than we it."

"So it was what attacked us three days ago?" 

Gendo nodded. 

"If it does acquire all the remaining Eva series, how will we be able to fight it?"

"We must make sure it does not acquire the other mass produced Eva's. Send a message to Matsushiro. Tell them to self-destruct their Eva's," Gendo ordered.

"Why would they listen to us?"

"Tell them that it is the Evangelions the enemy is after, and that they will be left alone if they destroy theirs."

"But that will leave them defenceless," Fuyutsuki informed his commanding officer. He knew that Gendo would be fully aware of this fact, but he had to attempt to dissuade him from this action, no matter how futile the attempt was, if only to soothe his own conscience.

"They stand little chance as it is. This way we will stand a better chance when it comes for us."

"How much should we tell them about the situation?" Fuyutsuki inquired.

"No more than we must. It would do them no good to learn more."

"Very well, sir," Fuyutsuki replied, acknowledging his orders, knowing full well they would send many men and women to their deaths.

***

Alarms wailed in Terminal Dogma. 

"What's going on?" Misato asked.

"We have detected an intrusive force within the MAGI," Maya Ibuki reported. She had returned to her workstation to keep watch on the events that were unfolding.

"It's being hacked?" Misato asked for conformation of her deduction.

"Yes ma'am," Maya replied. She and the other analysts in the room busily began working to expel the electronic intruder.

"I thought you had erected a firewall?" Misato asked.

"Yes ma'am, a type 666 firewall. It is a complex barrier, whatever program they are using must be advanced to break through it as fast as it did."

"Can you stop the hack?"

"I'll try but- uh!" Maya grunted in frustration. "As soon as I'm erecting blocks the hack just breaks straight through them!"

"How are you two faring?" Misato asked the other two analysts, hoping they were having some luck.

"Not good, Major," Aoba replied.

"We're having the same problems as Lieutenant Ibuki," Hyuga explained. "We just don't have the skills to cope with this level of infiltration."

"We need Dr. Akagi's help," Maya said.

"No we don't, you've studied under her for a long while. You know the workings of the MAGI nearly as well as she does, you can do it Maya," Misato replied. 'Does she really not have the skills, or is she just desperate to get Ritsu out of the brig?' Misato wondered. 'I can't afford to lose time over some idol worship.'

"But, ma'am-" Maya tried to protest.

"Damn it Maya!" Misato blurted out. "We can't afford to lose time arguing over this! How much time do we have left?"

"About, five or six minutes," Hyuga answered.

"Can you stop the hack in that time?" Misato asked, turning back to Maya.

"I don't know if I can stop the hack at all. The best I can manage is to maybe slow it down by a minute or two," Maya answered. Misato looked up at the display which showed a diagram of the three computers which composed the MAGI. Nearly all we're illuminated in blue, showing that everything with the computer was fine. However a red glow was slowly creeping over the diagram of Balthasar, covering more than half of it.

'Shit!' Misato cursed inwardly. 'We can't afford to lose the MAGI.' 

"What is the current situation?" a level voice asked. Misato turned round to see Gendo Ikari standing on the top level of the command tower, staring down at her. As always Kozo Fuyutsuki was by his side.

"An outside force is attempting to hack into the MAGI," Misato reported, using her best business voice.

"Is the incursion being contained?" Gendo asked, his eyes boring down into the purple haired major from behind his orange tinted glasses.

"Not with any success, sir."

"Do we expect to be able to stop it?" Gendo asked.

"Lieutenant Ibuki does not believe she will be able to stop the incursion, sir."

"What are our options?" Gendo asked. His tone seemed to convey that he already knew the options, but was checking to make sure if Misato did.

"Lieutenant Ibuki believes that Dr, Akagi would be able to prevent the loss of the MAGI, sir," she answered. She hated it when Gendo spoke to her in that manner, as if she was some rookie fresh out of training. He seemed to ponder the information for a moment.

"Very well, send word to the brig to have Dr. Akagi brought here," Gendo ordered after a while. Misato paused for a moment, considering whether or not to question his orders. Certainly, Ritsuko was her friend, but in her current condition she wondered whether she would do more harm than good. She looked back at Maya, a look of almost pleading on the woman's face. 

"Do your best to slow it down. I'll send word to the brig for Dr. Akagi to be brought up here," Misato finally gave in. A smile seemed to appear on Maya's face for a moment, before a look of concentration replaced it and the Lieutenant returned back to her work. 'Damn it, the last thing we need right now is a loose cannon like Ritsuko running around free.'

***

A shaft of light punctuated the darkness of the prison cell as the door opened. A figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the lights from the corridor outside. Ritsuko Akagi knew it was nobody important, just some pawn of Gendo's sent to do his bidding.

"Let me guess," she began, before the guard had even opened his mouth to speak. "They need help with the MAGI's self defence system?"

"That's right," the guard replied, seemingly irritated by the accuracy of Ritsuko's prediction. "Report to Terminal Dogma where you will be briefed by Lieutenant Ibuki."

"He expects the woman he abandoned to jump when he calls?" Ritsuko said scornfully, mainly to herself but loud enough for the guard to hear. She obviously felt no fear of Gendo, or speaking her mind about him. "Arrogant bastard."

***

Shinji stared down at the frail form of the girl on the hospital bed. It hurt him to look at her like this. She had once been so proud and full of life. She had been like this for weeks, lying on her side as if in some peaceful slumber. But Shinji knew her slumber would be far from peaceful. Like him she had suffered great pain in her short life, and like him it had got to be too much for her to bear. He had spent nearly a year of his life living with this girl, so before he left he felt he should say goodbye. Even if she might not be able to hear or understand him.

"Asuka?" he began tentatively. "Asuka, I'm going to be leaving soon. I'm sorry we won't be able to talk anymore, but I have to get away from this place. From all of this. It hurts too much to stay here, all the memories this place holds. I'm sure you know what I mean," he said sadly. He looked away for a moment, as if not wanting to remind the girl of those memories. But he couldn't help reminding himself of those memories. The tears she had shed when she had learned of the death of Ryoji Kaji, the man she had admired for so long. Her agonised screams and pleas for help as the fifteenth angel had invaded her mind, exposing all the memories she had buried many years ago. Certainly they had shared good times, the two Eva pilots. But, like any happy memory Shinji had, it all seemed so long ago.

"I'm sorry I won't be waiting here for you when you wake, Asuka. But I have to thank you, you gave me the strength to do what I needed to do." A small smile appeared on Shinji's face for a moment before disappearing again. "I hope one day, that I'll see you again Asuka. Goodbye."

***

"What's the situation?" Ritsuko Akagi asked, as she walked onto the lower floor of the control tower. She was wearing her white labcoat once again, looking completely at home in the environment of high-tech computers that was the Geofront's control centre. She walked towards the three blocky structures that housed the MAGI supercomputer that ran the Geofront, and the woman who stood waiting by them.

"Dr. Akagi," Maya addressed her, some degree of happiness evident in her voice. "The MAGI is being invaded by an external force," she informed her mentor, returning to a more matter-of-fact tone of voice.

"Where is the hack coming from?" the blonde haired scientist asked.

"We have detected several computers working together. The MAGI's from Beijing, Massachusetts, Hamburg, Berlin and Marseilles, ma'am."

"What's your prediction for how long we have until the MAGI is completely taken over?" she asked, already starting up her laptop and preparing the necessary connections for interfacing with the MAGI.

"We believe we have approximately three minutes twenty seconds left," Maya replied, as she watched in fascination as her mentor worked with practised ease to prepare her equipment.

"I'm assuming the hack is of a high level if you are bringing me in to fix the problem," she remarked. She tucked her laptop under her arm, kneeled down and began to make her way through the small access tunnel into the centre of the Caspar MAGI unit.

"Y-Yes ma'am," Maya replied, bending over to peer down the small tunnel. "I had already installed a type 666 firewall beforehand, and that was broken down within a few seconds."

"Hmm," the computer expert pondered this for a moment. "Have you attempted to modulate the encryption codes?" she groaned slightly as she worked herself round into a sitting position within the confines of the tunnel.

"Yes, ma'am, that only slowed down the incursion by about half a minute ma'am," Maya reported.

'Hmm, she really has been paying attention to what I had taught her,' Ritsuko realised, as she thought of how many other NERV employees would have overlooked that option. "Has there been any attempt at a direct interface with the MAGI so far?"

"No ma'am, I thought I had best wait until you arrived to attempt that. You do have a better knowledge of the MAGI than anybody else," Maya commented.

'No, there was one person who knew it better than I did,' she thought, looking around at the many notes pinned along the walls of the access tunnel. "How much has already been infected?"

"All of Balthasar, and seventy five percent of Melchior, ma'am."

'Not long until Caspar is compromised then,' Ritsuko noted. "Are you still working at attempting to slow down the incursion?" she asked, as she plugged wires into the exposed synthetic brain of Caspar.

"Yes, ma'am." Maya nodded to emphasise her answer.

"Good, keep on it. I'm going to attempt to erect a Jericho firewall around Caspar and purge the system from there, I'll need as much time as I can get."

"How long will it take ma'am?" Maya asked.

"I'm not sure," Ritsuko replied as she began to work on the complex codes needed to install the firewall. "But as I said I will need as much time as I can get."

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am," Maya hastily apologised before heading back to the computers on the next floor of the control tower.

'I'm going to need as much time as I can get,' Ritsuko thought. 'Especially since a firewall isn't the only thing I intend to program into the MAGI.' A small smile appeared on the woman's face.

***

"What's Dr. Akagi's plan?" Misato asked, looking over her shoulder at Maya as she returned to the main floor of the control tower. The purple haired Major stood with arms folded in front of the other two analysts, who were still working to slow down the infection.

"She is attempting to seal Caspar and then purge the system," Maya repeated, as she halted next to the Major.

"How long will that take?"

"She doesn't know, but she wants us to keep working to slow the spread of the hack," Maya informed her.

"Very well. You had probably better get back to your work, Lieutenant."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya nodded her agreement before taking her place in front of one of the computers arrayed on that level.

"Is the situation being brought under control?" Misato turned to face the source of the questioning voice. She saw that Commander Ikari was still standing at the edge of the top floor of the control tower. His hands were clasped behind him and his seemingly unblinking eyes still staring down at her.

"Yes, sir. But it still remains to be seen whether the operation will be successful," she answered, not wanting to promise something she might not be able to deliver.

"I trust you can handle this situation by yourself from now on," Gendo concluded. "Tell the First Child to report to my office, I will need to talk to her about the current situation," he said, not allowing Misato enough time to reply to his first statement. He then turned and walked out of view, disappearing behind the lip of the short wall surrounding the top floor.

'By myself?' Misato thought angrily. 'He didn't even do anything! And what would he need to speak to Rei personally about?' Misato pondered these questions for a moment before pushing them to the back of her mind to focus on the task at hand. "What's the current condition of the MAGI?"

"Melchior is now ninety five percent infected. The infection will spread to Caspar within the next thirty seconds," Maya reported calmly.

"What happens if Caspar is infected before it is sealed?" Misato asked, wanting to know the true extent of the threat.

"So long as it is not fully infected it shouldn't matter. Once the infected areas are cut off from the source they should become dormant. Dr. Akagi would have to remove any infection from Caspar before purging the rest of the system however," Maya answered, keeping her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her as her fingers worked furiously on the keyboard in front of her.

"Damn it!" Aoba suddenly shouted.

"What's the problem?" Misato asked, looking over at the analyst she could see the frustration clearly showing on his face.

"I just spent about thirty seconds programming that block, and it only held for about three seconds!" he said, frustration evident in his voice.

"We're finding it hard to come up with anything that's effective, ma'am," Hyuga added.

"Just stay calm and keep trying," Misato told the pair. Aoba grumbled slightly before returning to begin typing once again on his keyboard. Misato turned back to what Maya was doing. Her eyes watched in fascination as lines of code appeared faster than she could follow on the screen, all designed to slow down the other MAGI from taking control over the original. "I had no idea that the MAGI's could be so powerful," she commented.

"They shouldn't be," Maya replied.

"Huh?"

"Not even ten MAGI working together should be this good," she answered. "It's one of the things that has been worrying me. I don't know whether SEELE has developed a new infiltration program, or secretly upgraded the MAGI, but they shouldn't be dealing with our blocks this easily. The last time I saw an infiltration of such magnitude it was the eleventh Angel."

"Could this be the eleventh Angel?" Misato suddenly blurted out. Maya stared at her Major in slight shock at her unexpected outburst.

"I'm sure it was destroyed, ma'am," Maya replied, her eyes still wide with surprise.

"Caspar has been penetrated," Hyuga announced. "Five percent infection detected."

"But I remember Dr. Akagi saying that it could simply co-exist with the MAGI, instead of being destroyed. And there is still the possibility that some of it has remained dormant somewhere within the Geofront."

"It's possible ma'am," Maya said. "However the source of the hack has been confirmed as the five MAGI."

"Hmm, I guess you're right. I suppose I was just worried that we had another Angel to battle," Misato said, finally realising the logic in Maya's words.

"I understand," Maya replied, empathising with the Major's dislike of Angels. The shorthaired woman stared up at her superior, waiting to see if she would say something else. Misato noticed the woman's expectant look. 

"Sorry for interrupting you," she apologised, hiding her embarrassment. "You should return to your work." The brown haired woman then turned round and resumed her work.

'I had better not disturb her any more,' Misato thought. 'We need all the help we can to get through this.' Misato thought over Maya's words once more. 'Another Angel?' she wondered. 'Could it be?'

***

"Rei, as you know NERV is currently threatened by SEELE," Gendo began. He stared at the blue haired girl standing on the other side of his desk. She was dressed in her usual attire of a school uniform. Her red eyes stared back at him, as he sat in his usual pose, fingers steepled, behind his desk. "That threat has grown recently as SEELE are currently attempting to take over the MAGI. We expect a physical assault within the next twenty-four hours. I want to brief you personally on your priorities when the enemy comes." Rei continued to stare at the head of NERV. Although she remained silent Gendo Ikari knew she was taking in every word he was saying.

"Your priority is to ensure the enemy does not reach Lilith or Unit-01," Gendo continued. "All other concerns are to be considered secondary. Do you understand?" The girl nodded although there seemed to be some hesitation. "Is there a problem?" Gendo asked, noticing her slight pause.

"Will these orders apply to pilot Ikari?" she asked, her voice as quiet as ever.

"The Third Child is no longer a pilot," he replied. His voice carried a hint of the anger he felt at hearing Rei ask about his son. Rei nodded her acknowledgement of the information. "As a result you are now the only active Evangelion pilot. You shall report to Lieutenant Ibuki for a series of intensive synchronisation tests, once the current situation has been resolved. You must be at your best when you are required to pilot Unit-02 in combat." Whereas from anybody else this may have sounded like a request, coming from Gendo Ikari it was obvious that this was an order. Once again Rei's silence showed her acknowledgement. "You are dismissed," he said flatly. The girl turned and walked towards the door, her footsteps echoing in the cavernous room. Once she had left Kozo Fuyutsuki entered the room. The grey haired man made his way over to his superior's desk. Gendo raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the man's sudden appearance.

"Ikari, we have just received word that Matsushiro has fallen," Fuyutsuki reported. There was an odd tone to the older man's voice, almost like guilt.

"I see," Gendo answered. He appeared totally unaffected by the information.

"We have also received word that smaller NERV sites, and NERV affiliated installations are being attacked."

"So the enemy is targeting all of NERV? How very methodical."

"How are we to proceed?" Fuyutsuki asked. He seemed to be worried at the information, perhaps more than he was letting on.

"It appears our enemy has been frustrated by its failed first attack on the Geofront. I suspect it will only attack the Geofront again once it has neutralised all other NERV installations."

"I see, so we still have time left," Fuyutsuki commented. "But if we let it assault all other NERV installations surely its power would have grown considerably by then?"

"Indeed," Gendo stated. "That is why we must attempt to salvage what we can from the nearby installations. I want you to organise a force to be sent to the Choshi facility."

"The Choshi facility, but I thought that was closed several years ago, due to the failure of Project-N?" Fuyutsuki asked. Worry had once more crept back into his voice.

"It was. But never the less some of the products of Project-N would still be useful to us. And they could pose a serious threat should they fall into the hands of the enemy."

"But surely the enemy will know of the existence of the facility."

"Most likely. However I doubt they are expecting us to make such a bold move. We may be able to reach the facility before the enemy does," Gendo told his second in command, although his words did little to improve the man's confidence.

"And if the enemy arrives at the facility while our forces are still there?""Unit-02 should be sent with the expeditionary force. Although I doubt it would be able to repel a full attack, it should sufficiently delay the enemy."

"But that will leave the Geofront nearly defenceless," Fuyutsuki pointed out.

"If the Geofront is attacked while Unit-02 is away our defences should be able hold the enemy until our forces return. The Geofront is more heavily defended than any other NERV base." Irritation was beginning to creep into Gendo's voice at his friend's constant vocalising of his worries. "Now I suggest you begin planning the operation. I want it to be underway as soon as possible."

"Of course Ikari," Fuyutsuki finally relented. He turned to leave the office.

"And make sure Dr. Akagi is part of this force," Gendo told the man, temporarily halting his progress towards the room's exit. "We may yet need her abilities in order to gain access to the facility," Gendo explained. Fuyutsuki left the room, pondering the addition to the team. A computer expert in the field would be a prudent measure, however he couldn't shake the feeling that it was simply an excuse.

***

"Fifteen percent infection detected in Caspar," Hyuga reported.

'Damn it Ritsuko, hurry up,' Misato mentally urged the woman. Once again Misato Katsuragi was left with a feeling of helplessness as she watched the red glow slowly creep along the display of the MAGI. All her military training and experience in co-ordinating offensives and defensives meant nothing in such a situation. Certainly she did know something of computers. Having friends who were experts with computers, and working in NERV all these years had allowed Misato to pick up on many computer skills. But her meagre skills would do no good in the current situation. She had been reduced to a messenger now, delivering reports to and from the Commander. She also suspected that she would fulfil the role of fall guy should this operation be unsuccessful.

"The firewall has been installed!" a voice called up from the lower level of the control tower. Misato looked over the edge of the middle floor to see Ritsuko Akagi leaning out of the access tunnel that led into the heart of Caspar. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the satisfied look on her face.

"Twenty percent infection detected in Caspar!" Hyuga shouted in panic. "It's still spreading," he emphasised as he turned to look at Misato, his eyes wide in horror.

"Ritsuko, the infection is still spreading!" the Major shouted down to her old friend.

"Impossible," Ritsuko said incredulously. She checked her laptop again. "The firewall is holding, the infected portion of Caspar should have became dormant. It can't be operating independently!"

"What can we do now?" Misato asked, she needed options, and fast.

"Perform an emergency shutdown!" Ritsuko shouted up.

"What? But, ma'am, that could permanently damage the MAGI's data core!" Maya protested, looking down at her mentor on the lower level.

"It's our only option if we don't want to lose the MAGI!" Ritsuko explained, almost grudgingly. She seemed just as enthusiastic about the manoeuvre as Maya was.

"Performing shutdown!" Maya announced, sitting back on her seat, although a hint of sadness showed in her voice. "Shutdown in five… four… three…" Maya's voiced trailed off. Two seconds later the lights, computers, and everything electrical within the Geofront switched off.

***

"So what you are telling me, is that the MAGI could not be saved?" Gendo asked. He knew that was exactly what she meant, he just wanted her to confirm it, to admit her 'guilt.' He, and the other occupant of the room, were currently bathed in the red glow of the emergency lighting.

"Yes, sir," Misato replied clearly. She was trying not to show her irritation at being spoken to as if she were some disobedient school pupil. "Dr. Akagi succeeded in erecting a firewall, which contained the infection in both Balthasar and Melchior. However the infected segment of Caspar began to spread independently. Dr. Akagi believed that an emergency shutdown was the only way to prevent the MAGI falling into enemy hands, sir." Misato knew she had done everything she could, however little that was, which made her resent her Commander's implications of incompetence even more.

"When will the MAGI be operational again?" he asked, staring across at the Major standing at ease on the other side of his desk.

"Dr. Akagi doesn't recommend restarting the MAGI until the current situation has been resolved, sir. Also the emergency shutdown may have damaged the MAGI. It still may not be useable once it is restarted." She noticed Gendo's eyes narrow behind his glasses.

"So you are telling me the MAGI may never be fully operational again?"

"Well, it will most likely require extensive repairs, sir," she informed him. He seemed to run this information through his head for a few seconds. During which time the dull red glow of the emergency lighting was replaced by the standard lights of the Geofront as the emergency power was switched on. Misato blinked rapidly, trying to grow accustomed to the sudden increase in brightness in the room.

"As disappointed as I am at this," he began. "I do not believe that this was such a great loss. And I do not blame you entirely for the failure."

'Yeah, you just blame me _mostly_ for the failure,' Misato thought angrily, although deep down part of her agreed with him. It was bad enough that she believed she was partly to blame for the failure, but to be told that by her superiors did nothing to improve her confidence in her abilities. She had always been driven to succeed at whatever task she had been given, so she had always taken failure personally.

"We should also focus more on our next task," he said ominously.

"What next task is that, sir?" she asked, intrigued.

"I want you to co-ordinate a salvage operation that will go ahead tomorrow. Commander Fuyutsuki has already put together the force that will be sent out into the field. You, however, will simply need to co-ordinate this force should they come under attack."

"If I may ask, sir, what exactly are we attempting to salvage?" Misato pressed for information.

"That is not your concern," Gendo replied. "That will be all, Major," he said, with finality.

"Yes, sir," she responded, before turning to leave the room.

***

Rei's crimson eyes stared out of her window again. This time fixed on the moon, visible between clouds high up in the dark night sky. It wasn't a full moon, but it was close to it. A few more days' maybe and it would reach the apex of its lunar cycle. She didn't know what it was about the moon that fascinated her so. Perhaps it was its distance from humanity, a feeling she shared. Or perhaps it was just its existence as an opposite to the sun, a fascination perhaps with the duality of the world. Everything had its opposites. The Eva's had their Angels. NERV now had SEELE. It was interesting to spot these patterns in the world. Or perhaps it was just her boredom winning out. She had not done much for the past few weeks, and now all of a sudden she was beginning to become fascinated with the moon. It could just be her looking for something to keep herself interested.

She hadn't long arrived back from the Geofront. She had spent several hours in the test dummy plug for Unit-02, trying to raise her synch ratio with the fighting machine. Matters had been complicated by the loss of the MAGI, making analysing and cataloguing results from the tests a much lengthier process. However she had succeeded in improving her synchronisation rate. Higher even than her average synch ratio with Unit-00, which had surprised Lieutenant Ibuki. What had come as even more of a surprise was the news that she was to pilot Unit-02, possibly in combat, as early as tomorrow.

She realised she would need to rest, in order to pilot her Eva to the best of her abilities the next day. She closed her window and took off her school uniform, putting on the old T-shirt she wore for bed. Gendo Ikari made his way into her thoughts as she climbed into bed. 'Am I just someone who can pilot Eva to him?' she thought. She remembered her feeling of disappointment when she had left his office. The slight feeling of sadness as he had talked to her like he would to any subordinate, instead of to the girl he had raised. She pulled the bedsheets over her and tried to push those thoughts from her mind. But she remembered what else she had felt sad about when she had left Gendo Ikari's office.

"Ikari…" she quietly said the boy's name. Why had he decided to leave NERV? Was that the reason why he hadn't talked to her yesterday in the elevator? Would she ever speak to him again? She realised that thinking about it wouldn't do anything about it, so she tried once again to push those thoughts to the back of her mind. She pulled the bedsheets tighter around herself and tried to get some sleep.

***

Misato Katsuragi walked into her apartment and slipped off her shoes and jacket in her usual ritual. It had been a hard few hours at the end of her shift at the Geofront. She had been looking over the brief for the planned operation tomorrow and attempting to think up possible scenarios. Due to her limited knowledge of the size and power of the enemy's forces she had ended up thinking up many possibilities. Ranging from where everything went smoothly, with no interruptions, to where everything went wrong, with massive casualties. Needless to say she wasn't very optimistic about the success of the mission, especially after the failure to protect the MAGI. 

She had also tried to avoid Ritsuko as much as she could. Thankfully her old friend seemed to be trying to avoid her as well. Certainly she had went to see the woman for help, but that was in a guarded cell. She had seen the extent of the woman's condition when she had broken down in the Chamber of Gauf, and she would prefer to not have somebody in Ritsuko's condition have free reign within the Geofront. Part of her was secretly thankful that the MAGI had been lost. There was no telling what the woman could have done to it while she was installing the firewall. The fact that Ritsuko seemed very irritated at losing the MAGI also served to heighten the woman's suspicions.

And now she had to return home, which she had mixed feelings about. If Shinji had left during the day she would of course be sad. But if he had stayed, then she would still not know what to say to him. She felt guilty thinking it herself, but part of her wished that he would just leave, so she could try to forget about him. She could hear the television as she entered her apartment and guessed he hadn't left yet. She walked to the living room and saw Shinji sitting cross-legged in front of the television. It seemed odd seeing him like that. It was almost like the old times they spent together, before any of the bad things had happened.

"Hi there Shinji," she said, a caring tone in her voice. She sat down on the couch, and looked at what was on the TV. There were lots of frenzied cries of panic as the shaky camera work showed a massive creature attacking a large complex.

"What the hell is that?" somebody cried. Misato knew exactly what it was. It was one of the Eva series, its skin jet black, just like the others they had encountered. And the location it was attacking was obviously the Matsushiro NERV branch.

'I guess it was too much to hope that nobody would notice the attacks,' Misato thought.

"It's been on the news all day," Shinji explained. "They have been talking about attacks all around the world like this. So NERV has to fight these then?"

"It looks that way," Misato replied. She was feeling happy that she was having a relatively normal conversation with the boy.

"I guess you're going to ask me to pilot Eva again," Shinji said, keeping his eyes on the TV screen.

"No, Shinji, I wasn't going to do that. But with you gone, you know Rei has to fight those things all by herself don't you?" She knew she never should have said that last part, but she wanted to know if Shinji realised the implications of his actions.

"I'm not going to pilot Eva," he stated.

"But surely you care what happens to Rei?" Misato pushed him, trying to get a response.

"Why should I?" he asked quietly, still staring at the television screen. "Nobody cares about me."

"Of course people care about you Shinji," Misato replied.

"No they don't," he said, as if it were a fact. "If any of you really cared about me you would have never made me pilot Eva."

"Shinji I've said I'm sorry about that. I know it won't fix anything, but what more can I do?" she said to him. 'All he ever seems to do these days is wallow in self-pity,' she thought angrily. 'If he really hates it so much here, why has he not left yet?'

"You don't understand what I've been through," Shinji said, looking across at his guardian. "You just apologise to make you feel better."

"How can I understand if you never tell me anything?" Misato said angrily, her voice raised. She was getting irritated at how he was talking about her.

"You could never understand all the pain I've been through. How much it hurts to be here."

"Then what's keeping you here!" Misato shouted back, standing up. "Why are you still here Shinji? Ask yourself that. There has to be something you care about!" Her breathing had become heavy due to the exertion of shouting at the boy. She immediately felt guilty as she saw the boy turn his eyes down towards the ground and then turn round to face the television again. He looked very upset at her outburst. "Shinji I'm sorry," she began.

"I'll leave then," he said. His voice was very quiet, but it startled Misato just as much as if he had shouted. "I'll leave, tomorrow." She stared at the boy, trying to think of something to say. She wanted to say something, anything, to make him change his mind. But she knew it was hopeless.

"If that's what you want Shinji," she finally managed.

"And… thank you Misato. For everything you've done for me." She nodded, although she knew he couldn't see her. Her throat felt too tight to even utter a word. She left Shinji in front of the television and went into the kitchen. She made herself some food, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

****

End of the fourth day

Authors Notes:

Okay, there has been a big leap forward in plot in this chapter, I hope it intrigues you, and I hope I haven't given away too much!

Anyway, thanks and such to anybody who's reading this, and all involved in its creation.

I'll try to get part 5 out as soon as possible, sorry this took so long but I ended up doing several drafts and went on holiday for two weeks while I was writing it. But hey, it didn't take as long as part 2.


	6. The Fifth Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The fifth day:

Don't know why

Rei stared at the huge fighting machine that was Evangelion Unit-02. It was currently lying face down on the tarmac of the airfield NERV were using to launch their expeditionary force from. The airfield itself was formerly the Tokyo-2 International Airport, located on the outskirts of Tokyo-3. Having been severely damaged in Unit-00's self-destruction NERV had taken it upon itself to repair the complex, for its own uses. The place was barely recognisable as the once bustling airport it had once been as NERV had only decided to rebuild the location to useable standards. Besides nobody wanted to come to Tokyo-3 anyway, there was nothing there for anybody.

It was very early in the morning and so the whole airfield was bathed in the dull grey light that came before the sun rose, making her new Eva's armour plates look dark blue instead of their usual red.

'My Eva?' Rei thought, still staring at the machine. 'This is not mine.' She knew all too well that she was merely standing in as the machine's pilot. Despite the fact that its previous pilot could not get the thing to move, it was painfully clear to Rei, from the way everyone talked about it, and even from the way that it looked, that this was Asuka's Eva. Whether she could pilot it or not. Not many things in Rei's life had ever truly been hers. Unit-00, which everyone always thought of as 'Rei's Eva,' had not been hers. She knew every time she piloted it that it despised having her inside of it. It had even tried to kill her before.

The smell of aviation fuel made it's way to Rei, who wrinkled her nose in disgust. She looked over to the source of the repulsive smell to see the huge v-shaped plane that would be used to transport her Eva to Choshi, where the operation would go ahead.

"Rei?" she heard a voice call. She turned again to see the figure of Misato Katsuragi approach. "I see you're prepared for the mission today," she commented as she halted in front of the red eyed girl. She looked her up and down, seeing that she already had her plugsuit on. Rei nodded. "Very well, you have already been briefed on the mission. Ground troops will land and secure the facility in Choshi, and then technicians will enter the facility and retrieve the necessary materials. You will only be required to pilot the Eva should the expeditionary force come under attack. Otherwise the transport plane carrying Unit-02 will simply circle the location until the mission is over." 

"Yes, I understand," Rei said quietly.

"Very well then, good luck Rei." Misato then turned and headed off toward a group of technicians doing checks on the Eva's weapons, which were currently lying on the back of long trucks. Rei turned to look back at the Eva in front of her, lying prone on the ground. The first rays of sunlight crept over the mountains shining a yellow spotlight on the giant machine.

"Red," she whispered.

***

'I hope that we don't need her to fight,' Misato thought as she walked away from the First Child. One of the main problems she had spotted in the plans for the operation was Rei's lack of combat experience. She had fought against only a few Angels, and even then played no real part in their destruction. Except, of course, for her battle with the sixteenth Angel. And Misato was hoping that Rei would not be forced to take such drastic action today. Certainly Rei had been through the combat simulators just as all the other pilots had. But one of the first things Misato realised when she started to work for NERV was that no amount of theory could prepare you for real life.

"How are the preparations going?" Misato asked as she stopped at a group of technicians checking the weapons Unit-02 would take with it on the mission.

"Good. Everything's ready," one of the technicians replied. "We have a Palette Rifle and Rocket Launcher fully loaded and in top condition. Unit-02 has already been equipped with two prog knives and both spike launchers have been loaded."

"Good work," Misato approved them before moving on. 

That was another thing that had Misato worried. Unit-02's lack of weapons. Due to the size and weight of the Eva's weapons it was only possible to take as much as the Eva itself could carry. In Tokyo-3 and the Geofront it was possible to keep supplying the Eva's with weapons almost indefinitely. However away from the Geofront this was not possible. Certainly the arsenal Unit-02 was taking with it to Choshi was enough to level a large city, but Misato had seen how much damage the new Eva's could take, and she wondered whether it would be enough to put one down. Another problem raised by using an Eva around the Choshi facility was the lack of power cables available for the Eva. The facility had been constructed before Project-E had even begun and had been closed just as the first Evangelion's had been completed. As such Unit-02 must be fitted with battery packs that contained enough power to keep the Eva going for roughly thirty minutes. It was better than having the Eva run off its own internal power source, but Misato still looked on the limited operational time as a serious problem. She hoped that any battle wouldn't last that long, but it was always a possibility.

Out of the corner of her eye Misato spotted Ritsuko Akagi sitting near one of the aeroplane hangars. She guessed she had picked such a place to prepare her equipment so she would be away from the others involved in the operation. Especially Rei. Misato had once been close friends with the woman, but ever since the incident in the Chamber of Gauf Misato had begun to doubt whether she had ever really known her. She knew it would probably be better to leave her alone, but there were some things that she wanted to know.

"Well, well, well Major Misato Katsuragi," Ritsuko commented tiredly as she looked up from her laptop at the purple haired woman. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Ritsuko," Misato nodded her greeting, ignoring what the other woman had said. She folded her arms over her chest and looked down at the woman. "Listen Ritsuko I don't trust you. And I'm pretty certain you aren't very fond of anyone who works for NERV now, but I just need to talk to you about something. It will benefit us both."

"You trusted me enough to talk to me about Shinji," Ritsuko replied, her voice remaining level.

"That was different Ritsuko. I needed a friend then, and you were all I had."

"Huh," Ritsuko grunted dubiously. "What do you want to know then?" Ritsuko asked, looking back at her laptop.

"The Choshi facility," Misato stated, "what's in it?"

"It's the question on everybody's lips isn't it?" Ritsuko replied, a smirk appearing on her face. "But for once I don't have the answer."

"What?" Misato blurted out, shocked by the information.

"Project-N was closed down shortly after I joined NERV. It was deemed a failure and all information on it was classified. Only the Commanders know about it. I have heard that it had the same goals as Project-E, but I haven't been able to confirm this."

"The same goals as Project-E?" Misato asked, wondering what the blonde woman had meant by this.

"To create something using Angel technology," she explained, looking back up at her old friend.

"What did they try to create?"

"I told you I don't know," Ritsuko answered, sounding irritated. "However I do know one thing," she continued, deliberately teasing her old friend.

"What?"

"That the information learned through Project-N has been used since then… on two separate occasions." Ritsuko returned her attention to the screen on her laptop.

"I'm guessing you don't know any more than that," Misato deduced. She looked down at the ground, running the information through her head. She realised it could take a while to make sense of it so filed the information away in her memory for later. "Thanks for your help," Misato said, some of her trust for her friend returning. "And good luck today."

"Luck, hah!" Ritsuko said apathetically. "As if I would be here if Ikari thought we had any chance of success."

"What?" Misato asked, shock once again blooming in her.

"Isn't it obvious?" She looked up again. "I'm a liability to him, that makes me expendable. If this operation goes wrong he wants to make sure my name is on the casualty list. That bastard."

"So why don't you just refuse to go?" Misato asked. Despite her current distrust for her friend, she certainly didn't want to wish death on her.

"And spend the rest of my days in a cell? Besides, the way this situation is going I doubt any of us have much time left. At least out here I might be able to achieve… it doesn't matter." Ritsuko returned to her laptop, clearly showing she had finished with the conversation. Misato turned and walked away from her old friend. All of a sudden her fears seemed all too real.

***

"So you're running away again?" Asuka said scornfully. She stood in front of him in her yellow sundress, her hands on her hips, the only thing to disrupt the utter blackness that surrounded the two.

"What?" Shinji asked in confusion.

"Invincible Shinji can't handle it anymore so he's running away."

"But- but you told me to!" Shinji protested.

"That was not what we said," Rei said as she appeared out of the inky darkness next to Asuka.

"We told you to do what you wanted," Misato said as she materialised in the void.

"But- this is what I want!" Shinji shouted. His mind was a sea of confusion.

"Is it?" Rei asked.

"You just said you didn't want to pilot anymore," Misato told him.

"I don't!"

"Isn't it enough that you've left NERV?" Asuka asked him.

"I-I don't understand," Shinji said quietly, bowing his head.

"You're a coward Shinji, that's all there is too it," Misato said bluntly.

"You're weak and feeble, so you're running away," Asuka told him. "Your leaving everyone you knew to die, because you're not strong enough."

"But they don't care about me, why should I care about them?"

"What are you stupid? Do you think Misato would have done everything she had if she didn't care for you?" Asuka retorted.

"That's just her job. I'm only a pilot to her."

"Hah, you even lie to yourself!" Asuka laughed. "Just because you think you're disgusting you assume everyone else does too."

"I only hate myself because nobody shows any affection for me."

"Were you living under a rock for the past year?" Asuka snapped back at him.

"What of the friends you made?" Rei asked. "Did they not make you feel… happy?"

"Maybe, for a while. But it wasn't happiness. All happiness is just an absence of pain."

"Is that really what you think?" Misato asked, concern showing in her voice.

"Yes. Just look at what happened to Toji," Shinji paused for a moment. "What _I_ did to him," he said, sadness welling up in his voice.

"You shouldn't blame yourself so much Shinji," Misato attempted to console him. "So you hurt some people? Things like that happen in life Shinji, you shouldn't get so caught up over them."

"You don't understand!" Shinji shouted back, lifting his head up to stare at the three women, clenching his fists. "None of you understand what it's like to be me!"

"Then tell us Shinji," Asuka said in a sympathetic voice.

"Tell us," Rei said.

"Tell us," Misato repeated.

"I- I can't!" Shinji fell to his knees putting his head in his hands, trying to hold back the tears. "I can't," he said quietly.

"Can you tell me?" a voice asked. It was a voice he had heard before, a voice that had once brought so much happiness into his life, before he himself had destroyed it.

"Kaworu?" Shinji asked, looking up. The three women had disappeared, replaced by a single boy with pale skin and grey hair, his hands in the pockets of his school trousers. He smiled, bringing a smile of joy to Shinji's tear streaked face. "But you're-"

"Dead?" Kaworu asked, a small laugh escaping from his lips. "Yes, Shinji, I am. But that doesn't matter right now."

"Why are you here?" Shinji asked, feeling confused again.

"To talk to you, Shinji. You seem to be in a bad place right now," he replied, concern showing in his voice.

"I-I'm confused. I didn't want to pilot, and so I left. But now I'm wondering whether it was the right thing to do." He stared down at his hands, hanging limply between his legs as he lay kneeling on the floor.

"Do you think it was the right thing to do?"

"I don't know." His head sank lower down.

"So why did you leave?"

"Because I didn't want to pilot anymore. Because it hurts too much to stay here."

"So why are you having second thoughts? It would seem that leaving would be the best thing."

"I don't know."

"Well, you ran away from things before, did that help?" Kaworu asked sincerely.

"I don't know. Whenever I ran away things never seemed to get any better. When I was living with my teacher things were boring, but they were stable. But I don't know if things were any better."

"So is running away the answer Shinji? Maybe what you are looking for is right here, you just have to find it."

"Maybe, but maybe it's out there somewhere?" he thought aloud.

"Hmm… uncertainty. It is what fills the Lilim heart with fear, but also what makes it seek comfort."

"So, what should I do?" Shinji asked, his desperation showing in his voice. He looked up into the crimson eyes of his dead friend. Absolute silence enveloped the two for a long while.

"I can't decide that for you Shinji," Kaworu said eventually, a sad look appearing on his face. "Only you can."

***

Shinji Ikari awoke, and bolted upright in his bed. The last words from his dream playing over and over in his head.

"What should I do?" he said to himself, hoping that somebody, anybody, would answer. "What should I do?" Just like he had in his dream Shinji Ikari buried his face in his hands, and wept.

***

Rei stared down at the ground far below her, taking in the scenery so as to familiarise herself with the area. Should the expeditionary force come under attack knowledge of the surrounding area could prove invaluable. 

Choshi was a large city on a small island barely half a mile off the coast. The island it was on was originally an outcrop of land that stretched out into the ocean, but the rising water levels caused by Second Impact had severed it from the mainland. Several hills served as the centre of the island, and also were the location for the NERV installation that was the target for this operation. Surrounding these hills was a large green grassy plain. The main bulk of Choshi City was spread out across the coast facing out into the ocean. NERV were to avoid the city, since seeing unknown soldiers out in the open would only serve to panic the citizens. This was a good thing as from her height Rei could only make the city out as a grey blur along the coast. She could also spot a few farms dotted around the grassy plains, and small harbours around the coast.

The various transport helicopters had landed in the hills roughly half an hour ago and so far everything was running smoothly. The facility had been located and Dr. Akagi had already begun the process of breaking the electronic locks that prevented access to the interior. So for the past thirty minutes the transport plane carrying Unit-02 had simply circled the small cluster of hills, allowing Rei an excellent view of the small island.

"Rei?" Major Katsuragi's voice came over the intercom.

"Yes," she responded calmly.

"The operation is going according to plan, we have no need for you as of yet. How are you doing?"

"I am prepared for combat, should the need arise," Rei answered levelly.

"That's good, I'll contact you again in another ten minutes with another status report." Rei returned her attention to the ground far below her. The image tilted slightly as the plane made a small change in its flight path.

'No need for me?' Rei thought. 'Am I only useful when I am needed? Am I a tool?'

***

"How's the unlocking coming along Doctor?" the Captain asked. The badge on his chest identified him as 'Cpt. Nanasawa.'

"It's about seventy percent complete. It's taking longer than expected. Whoever sealed this was trying to make sure nobody got in again," Ritsuko Akagi replied.

"Well we have to get in there," the Captain remarked. The man was a NERV guard with a military background, he had been picked along with other guards with military experience to serve as ground troops during the operation. Although most attacks by SEELE had been performed by Eva's it was better to be prepared should SEELE use some troops of their own to attempt to capture the facility. The man was in his late thirties and had served during the brief and violent war that had followed Second Impact. A dark blue helmet and goggles covered most of his face. He was also dressed in full military gear, in black and dark blue, and casually holding a rifle under his left arm. All the other soldiers were dressed similarly, although looking a lot more apprehensive than their Captain was.

"That's the problem with most of these boys," he commented looking around at the assembled soldiers. He and about four others were positioned at the huge metal door marked 'Gehirn Choshi Facility.' He was standing in the doorway to the small booth at the side of the main door. Ritsuko was sitting on a chair in the booth, her laptop plugged into the computer terminal there and her fingers busily working on the keyboard. The other four soldiers were spread out around the perimeter of the entrance keeping watch on the road which led up to the facility.

"Most of these only have basic firearms training, they've never been in actual combat. I would hate to see what would happen if SEELE decided to take the Geofront with a squad of Commando's," he snorted in disgust. He glanced at the blonde haired woman in the booth and realised she wasn't paying any attention to him. 'Hmm, they said she was a cold bitch,' he thought.

"Captain Nanasawa?" a voice came over the radio attached to the collar of his uniform.

"Here," he said, pulling the black box closer to his mouth.

"We've detected a large airborne object moving towards your position."

"Another object detected," a voice could be heard in the background.

"Two airborne objects heading your way," Misato informed him. "Chances are good it'll be Eva's. Leave this to Unit-02, just make sure Dr. Akagi does her job, and retrieve the materials as quick as possible."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "Did you hear that?" he asked. Ristuko nodded. "We have hostiles incoming!" he shouted to the other soldiers nearby, his army training coming flooding back to him. "We're to hold the position, got that?" the other soldiers nodded. He pressed the button on the radio to transmit to all the soldiers in the area and repeated the news to them. "How much longer Doctor?" he asked after relaying the information to his troops.

"Only a few more minutes," she replied. He gripped his rifle tighter and looked up to see the large v-shape of the transport plane. He could make out the shape of the Eva's legs sticking out from under the plane where it was held horizontally beneath it. 'Christ,' he thought, 'I'd rather be shelled by nukes than go up against one of those things. I'd have a better chance against the nukes.'

***

Misato stared at the large map of Choshi projected over the cavernous space in front of the Geofront's control tower. Numerous blue dots marked the position of NERV personnel in the hills, and a large green triangle showed the position of Unit-02, currently flying above the hills on the underside of a massive transport plane. Two red triangles made their way slowly towards the blue dots in the centre of the map. She knew that while the two hostile Eva's were airborne they would be untouchable. She would have to wait until they had landed to deploy Unit-02 against them.

She also doubted her own abilities in being able to deal with the situation. And doubting your own skills was as close to losing before you began as you could get. Not only had her confidence been shaken by the loss of the MAGI, not even twenty four hours before, but her mind was nearly constantly on Shinji. He had said last night that he would be leaving today. What time, he hadn't said. She knew he could have left already and she never got the chance to say goodbye to him. But again she wondered what she could say to him if she did get the chance. Again she was torn. She wanted him to stay because she felt responsible for what happened to him, and she wanted some opportunity to help him. But then she thought it would be better if he just left, to end both their pains.

"Major?" Maya asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Should we inform the First Child of the current situation?" Maya asked. Misato nodded.

"Put me through to her."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya pressed a button on her workstation.

"Rei, can you hear me?" Misato asked.

"Yes," Rei replied, quiet as always.

"Two MP Eva's have been detected heading for the facility. So far we don't believe they know of our presence, so we'll use this to our advantage. Once the Eva's have landed you will be dropped as near to the enemy as possible, hopefully you will be able to take advantage of their surprise," Misato informed the girl.

"Understood," she replied, ending their conversation. Misato had expected some degree of shock or protest from her against simply dropping the Eva from such a height. But she remembered how Rei was, she would have realised that such a fall wouldn't have damaged the Eva. However a disturbing thought entered her mind that Rei would probably still go ahead with the plan even if the fall would have killed her.

***

Above Misato, on the top level of the control tower Gendo Ikari sat at the large desk there, his hands, as usual, steepled in front of his face. He watched the coloured icons move their way across the large three-dimensional map.

"The situation does not look good," Kozo Fuyutsuki remarked, as he stood to his Commander's right.

"Rei will be able to delay the enemy long enough to retrieve the materials," Gendo replied, no sign of worry in his voice.

"What if Unit-02 is destroyed?"

"Then we are defeated. However the enemy is also attempting to seize the contents of the facility. Gaining control of the weapons will be a blow to our enemy. Risking Unit-02 was a gamble I was willing to take."

"I never thought you were one to gamble Ikari," Fuyutsuki remarked. 

Gendo didn't reply.

***

"Doors unlocked!" Ritsuko Akagi shouted over the sound of metal grinding as mechanisms unused for nearly a decade sprang into life once again. Nanasawa turned to see the huge metal doors sliding apart to reveal a massive corridor leading down into the bowels of the facility.

"Finally," he breathed a sigh of relief. "Hayasaka, Tsubasa," he cried to two of the soldiers, "with me!" The three soldiers descended into the facility following the lab coat clad figure of Dr. Akagi. "Do you mind hurrying it up a little Doctor?" he asked, his irritation at her leisurely pace obvious in his voice. "And where exactly are these 'materials' stored?"

"We should follow this corridor for another hundred or so metres, then we'll reach the storage room," she replied, making no effort to hide her contempt of the Captain. After about fifty metres the corridor levelled out and branched off further into the facility. The corridor looked about fifteen feet high and fifteen feet wide. A wide strip down the centre of the corridor was obviously a track designed to allow vehicles access to the facility. The whole place was a uniform grey and dark blue. All the corridors that branched away from the main corridor were a lot smaller, the size of normal corridors in the Geofront. Many doors could be seen lining the other corridors, each identical to the next. The whole place looked cold and unfeeling, and the stale air inside told that the place hadn't been disturbed for a long while. He could see the other two soldiers looking about nervously. He could tell they felt it too, the awful foreboding growing inside him. They kept going straight ahead. Eventually they came across tall double doors which, like the entrance, were also electronically locked. However they took only a few seconds to break. The large doors slid ominously open, revealing a large cavernous room.

"These are the 'materials?'" the Captain asked, too shocked to notice the looks of horror on his subordinate's faces.

"Hmm, it all makes sense now," Ritsuko said calmly, observing the contents of the room. Nanasawa swallowed nervously and tried to take stock of the situation.

"We're going to need more men."

***

Shinji stood at the boundaries of Tokyo-3. The pavement, which covered the whole city, ended a pace in front of him. The road to his right stretched out into the countryside, away from the city. It was never used nowadays, there was barely a handful of people still living inside the once bustling metropolis. Mainly the hospital staff still tending for those too ill to be moved.

'Just one more step,' he thought, 'and I'll leave this place.' He turned to take one last look back at the city. The street was lined with small office buildings, the owners too poor to afford premises nearer the centre of the city, near the busy business district. But that was why they were still standing now, while their wealthier rivals had fallen. Not that it did much good, nobody wanted anything to do with Tokyo-3 now, so the buildings hadn't been used for several weeks. Far beyond these could be seen the tall skyscrapers of Tokyo-3. Their foundations shattered they teetered at awkward angles, seemingly straining not to collapse. Large white clouds lazily made their way across the sky, making the city look almost peaceful, and also obscuring the sun. The gradient of the street prevented him from seeing the lake that now replaced the city's centre. The lake that he had spent so much time at over the past weeks. Why had he gone there? The lake itself had been a product of 'her' death, and it had been the place where he had met 'him.' It held so many bad memories, yet he still went there.

_As the cold water washed over him, soaking his clothes all over again, he had no intention of ever resurfacing._

He shivered. Both at the cold wind that blew threw the street, and the memory of that moment, as he sunk into the lake in an attempt to end his life.

'Why couldn't I do it?' he wondered, but shook off the thought quickly. It didn't matter any more, he was leaving this place. 'Just one more step.' He faced away from the city once again. He swallowed hard and balled his fists, mustering the strength to take that next step. The last step of his old life, and the first step of his new. A symbolic gesture, the severing of all the painful memories the place held. He took the step.

_"I'm sure Commander Ikari is just busy."_

'I can't move! why can't I move?' Shinji looked down at his feet. They felt raw, as if they didn't belong to him. He was still standing on the edge of the pavement, as if some invisible force was preventing him from moving any further.

_"Nobody cares about me."_

"Then what's keeping you here!"

'But I don't want to stay!' he thought, as if trying to convince his body to move. "I want to go!" he shouted.

_"Maybe what you are looking for is right here, you just have to find it."_

"There has to be something you care about!"

Shinji fell to his knees and pounded the pavement with his fist. The sun suddenly appeared from between the clouds, making the pavement feel warm on the palms of his hands as he supported himself. He noticed drops of water turn the concrete dark grey beneath him. 'Rain?' he thought. 'No… tears.' He squeezed his eyes shut. 'Why can't I leave? Why can't I leave?'

"Help me Asuka…" he whispered.

***

"You ever seen one of these Evangelions fight?" Ishida asked, scanning the area nervously.

"No, I've always been in the Geofront when an Angel attacks," Kikuchi replied, keeping a similarly nervous lookout.

"I saw one of 'em, fighting that big Angel that tore up the Geofront."

"Really?"

"Uh huh," Ishida nodded. "They're vicious, monsters even. I shouldn't be telling you this, but… it ate the Angel!"

"W-What?" Kikuchi looked at his new acquaintance with wide eyes.

"Yup, it tore the things arms off, and then it ate it!" Ishida repeated himself, chomping his teeth to add emphasis to his words.

"Will you two shut up!" Obari hissed at them, from over the other side of the road. All three men were on edge, and they had good reason to be. They were all stationed on the frontline, the base of the hill. If any ground troops were to make a push for the facility in the hills this would be the first place they struck. All three were crouched down in the tall grass by the side of the road that led to the facility. Ishida was the only one out of the small group to have no military experience, but he acted like a veteran, simply because he had been working for NERV longer than the other two. And had actually seen Evangelions in combat.

"How much longer 'till these Eva's get here?" Kikuchi, the youngest of the three, asked.

"About a minute from what I've heard," Ishida replied.

"About a minute?" Kikuchi repeated in horror, tightening his grip on the rifle he held. "Are we going to have to fight these things?"

"You never know," Ishida said ominously.

"Kikuchi stop talking to that idiot," Obari told him. He was the oldest, and had the most military experience of the three, so had been appointed the de facto leader. "We're here to stop enemy soldiers, not Eva's. If we're to come up against Eva's we're to pull back, got it?" Kikuchi nodded, feeling slightly relieved. "And besides," Obari continued, "these things can fly, so they're not gonna bother fighting their way up the mountain if they can just fly to the top."

"You have to spoil all my fun," Ishida grinned back at Obari. Obari glared back at the man. He didn't like Ishida at all and knew he would just be trouble when he was assigned with him to guard the base of the hill. The fact that Kikuchi was so gullible to whatever Ishida said just irritated him even more. The three had only met each other about an hour ago but already Obari wished he would never see them again.

"Sergeant!" Kikuchi hissed, stretching up to look over the top of the tall grass. "I can see somebody coming." Obari took a quick glance over the top of the grass and saw several figures moving slowly up the road towards them. 

"Keep down," Obari waved his hand at Kikuchi and the man returned to his crouching position. Obari ducked down again. "They just look like civilians, maybe out for a walk, just stay down for the minute I'll contact the Captain. He lifted his radio up and pressed the large button on it to transmit. "Captain Nanasawa?" he requested. There was a long period of static.

"Here," a voice said eventually.

"Obari here, we've spotted civilians heading for the hill, requesting orders," he stated. Once again there was a long period of static.

"Tell them there are military manoeuvres going on, and to stay away," Nanasawa eventually answered.

"Understood, sir."

"And we're pulling out in five, make sure to be back at the dust-off point by then." Obari waved for the other two men to stand up and then stood up himself. There were eight people all dressed in civilian clothes heading along the road, Obari also saw more groups heading in the same direction in the distance. The group was a lot closer than he thought they would have been.

"Halt!" he cried out. "This area is being used for military manoeuvres and is off-limits, please turn back immediately." The group continued on as if they hadn't heard anything. "I said halt!" Obari shouted aiming his rifle at the man at the head of the group. The man turned his head to look at Obari, a vacant expression on his face, and raised his hand palm outward to point at him.

"Something's not right," Kikuchi said nervously, aiming his rifle at another person who had assumed the same position as Obari's target. Obari picked up his radio once again.

"Nanasawa, we are encountering resistance from the civilians, how should we proceed?"

***

"Resistance?" Nanasawa asked incredulously. He was now standing by one of the large transport helicopters watching the 'materials' being loaded on. Mercifully they had been stored in large containers fitted with shutters. There would be plenty of time to talk over them later, but for now the fewer people that saw them the better.

"There not listening to what we're saying and- what the?"

"Christ, look at their skin!" another voice on the other end of the radio said.

"What the- get off me!" another voice shouted.

"Damn it, open fire!" Obari shouted.

"What!?" Nanasawa shouted down the phone as the sounds of gunshots were heard. "Cease fire! Cease fire immediately!" The sound of an explosion was heard on the other end of the radio followed by static. "Obari? Obari are you there? Kikuchi? Ishida? Come in." He heard nothing but static coming from the radio.

"Is there a problem Captain?" Ritsuko asked, a small smirk on her face.

"What exactly are you so happy about?" Nanasawa snarled at her. Her amusement at his confusion coupled with her behaviour over the past hour had begun to irritate him immensely.

"Not happy really," Ritsuko said nonchalantly. "I was expecting to die on this mission, getting out of here alive would be a bonus for me. I thought I might as well enjoy my time here." Nanasawa suppressed the urge to shout at the woman and grabbed his radio again.

"Koizomi," he asked for the man over his radio.

"Here."

"Take some men down to the bottom of the hill. I lost contact with Obari, find out what happened."

"Yes, sir."

"Have we finished loading?" Nanasawa asked a passing soldier.

"Yes, sir, the helicopters are being prepared for take-off now," the soldier quickly replied before continuing on his way. Nanasawa spoke into his radio again.

"Major?"

"What is it Captain?" Misato replied.

"All the materials have been loaded, we'll be pulling out as soon as all troops have been recalled," he reported.

"The Eva's are nearly on your position Captain, get those men back as soon as possible," Misato informed him.

"Yes, ma'am." Suddenly a massive shadow passed across the sun. Everyone on the small plateau looked upwards to see what appeared to be two massive birds circling around them like vultures. Panic spread through the group as realisation dawned that the Eva's had arrived. 

"Keep calm!" Nanasawa shouted over the din of panicked voices cursing and arguing. One of the bird-shapes turned onto its side and descended down towards them. As it neared the ground it twisted so it was vertical and flapped its powerful wings to slow its descent. Many men were knocked over by the powerful gale created by the giant creature. A loud thud echoed through the mountains as it touched down on the edge of the plateau. All the soldiers looked at it in horror. It stood crouched over slightly, its huge double-ended sword grasped in one hand as its wings retracted into its back. It seemed to survey the assorted helicopters and soldiers with its black eyeless head. Its lips parted in a hungry grin.

"Captain!" Misato's voice shouted through his radio. "The Eva's are right on top of you!"

"No shit," he said to himself, staring up at the huge beast.

***

"How did they get there so quickly?" Misato asked.

"It looked like they picked up speed as they got nearer to our position," Hyuga reported, quickly bringing up reports and records on his screen.

"Put me through to Rei," Misato ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Rei?" Misato asked, as the small holographic window appeared in front of her.

"Yes?" she replied, patiently awaiting orders.

"The two hostiles have already touched down at our field base, we'll need to deploy you immediately," she informed the red eyed girl.

"I am prepared," Rei replied simply.

"We'll drop you as soon as we are able to find a drop point within shooting distance of the Eva's."

"Understood."

"Ma'am, only one of the Eva's has touched down, the other is still airborne," Hyuga informed her, looking away from the displays on his computer screen.

"Did you hear that Rei?" Misato asked, turning back to the image of the First Child. Rei nodded. "You'll have to watch out for the second Eva, the first is probably bait to draw out our forces, so keep watch. We'll monitor the situation from here." She looked back to the large holographic map, the first Eva hadn't moved yet, it simply seemed to be taking everything in. It was however causing panic throughout the makeshift base. She could see the small blue dots, which represented NERV troops, running back and forth hurriedly as if attempting to avoid the creatures eyeless gaze.

"Put me through to the Captain," Misato requested. Obediently Maya pressed several buttons on her keyboard to open a channel to the Captain.

"Nanasawa?" Misato asked once again.

"Yes, Major?" the man replied, she knew she didn't have his full concentration. The irritation that showed in the man's voice told her it was a bad time for her to call.

"What's the situation?"

"Bad, Major, it isn't doing-" he abruptly stopped the conversation when the sound of gunfire broke out. "Don't waste your ammunition!" the bridge staff heard him cry. "You can't hurt it! Damn it, Major, where the hell is that Eva of ours?" he shouted down the radio. She disliked the man's unprofessional tone, but she didn't know whether she could handle the situation any better than the man was.

"It should be there as soon as possible Captain. How many men are you waiting for?"

"About six- Oh, Christ!" Misato immediately realised what was the cause of the man's concern as she saw the large red arrow, which represented the grounded Eva, move. A large crunch, followed by an explosion and several screams, was heard. "It just took out one of our helicopters!"

"Captain, pull your men out now!" Misato ordered him.

"I'm not leaving those men-" he began before Misato cut him off.

"Then keep one transport behind, send the rest off!"

"Yes, ma'am," he responded, seemingly pleased and relieved at her order. Gunfire was heard to break out again just before the Captain ended the communication.

"The transport plane is in position," Aoba announced.

"Tell them to drop Unit-02 now!" Misato shouted.

***

Rei heard the double metallic _clunk_ of the restraints disengaging. Unit-02 begin to slide backwards along the runners that held it to the bottom of the large plane. Her shoulders sagged as they were freed from their restraint. She felt the wind more strongly now as the Eva began its descent. Down below her she could see the small plateau, roughly half way up the hill, where nine helicopters were preparing to take off. She could see the burning wreckage of one helicopter in front of the black giant at the plateau's edge. She knew what she had to do.

She gently leant backwards to turn the Eva to a vertical position as it continued to fall, making sure not to push too hard in case the Eva went into a spin in mid-air. She had to remember to factor in the weight of the rocket launcher and palette rifle held in either hand, and the weight of the battery packs on each shoulder. She braced herself for the impact.

Unit-02 hit the ground hard, creating a small crater in the side of the hill and sending clods of earth flying. The Eva's knees bent but didn't buckle. Rei spread the Eva's legs, shifting its weight, and kept the Eva stable despite the earth beneath her feet giving way and attempting to drag the Eva down the side of the hill along with it. Unit-02 looked up, its four eyes locking onto its enemy on the opposite side of the plateau to it. A helicopter flew in front of the S2 equipped Eva attempting to make a getaway from the creature. Its grinning head turned to follow the machines' ascent. Its arms strained and wrenched the large double-ended sword from the wreckage of the first helicopter and swung it up in an arc. The blade sliced clean through the centre of the flying machine, sending the two halves spinning off into the air before they exploded, showering debris down onto the hillside. Rei could clearly hear the panicked cursing and terrifies screams coming from the assembled soldiers. The beast then turned to face Unit-02.

"AT field active," she said, almost automatically, as she quickly commanded Unit-02 to drop to one knee and raise its right arm. She levelled the rocket launcher at the grinning beast in front of her, but found it hard to keep her aim steady having to hold the weapon one-handed. And her other hand was occupied, holding her palette rifle. She pulled the trigger, and the long silver barrel roared. The Eva rocked back slightly under the recoil from the weapon. The rocket streaked out across the plateau. Rei had been aiming for the Eva's chest, but the rocket instead struck the creature in its right knee. The whole of the Eva's knee, along with part of its shin and thigh, exploded, shearing its lower leg off. 

The impact of the explosion also knocked the Eva off balance, so it teetered precariously on the edge of the plateau. It stuck its arms out in front of it in an attempt to regain balance. Its wings quickly deployed, beating furiously in order to keep the Eva from tumbling down the hillside. Rei took advantage of the opening and loosed another rocket at the Eva. This one did strike the Eva in the chest, sending a shower of blood across the plateau. Rei was unable to judge the amount of damage done to the creature, however, as it plummeted off the side of the plateau under the force of the attack.

"Rei, behind you!" Major Katsuragi's voice cried over the communication channel. Rei spun round in time to see the falling shape of the other MP Eva silhouetted against the sun. Its wings were outstretched and its sword raised over its head, ready to cleave Unit-02 in half. Rei's trained mind thought quickly how to proceed. She quickly ordered Unit-02 to drop down further and point its shoulder units towards the rapidly approaching enemy. This was hard to do considering that Unit-02 was kneeling, and facing in the wrong direction. She knew she could never bring the rocket launcher to bear on her attacker in time. So when the Eva's torso had twisted so its shoulders pointed towards the swooping Eva she pressed the small red button on each control, a button which was not included in either Unit-00 or Unit-01. The Eva's shoulder units spilt apart to reveal five closely packed holes looking like the barrels of guns in each. Two volley's of five steel spikes shot out at high speed to embed themselves in Unit-02's would-be attacker. One volley struck the Eva in the stomach, leaving what looked like five black tubes sticking out of the creature's abdomen. The other volley ripped through the airborne Eva's left wing, some spikes were left embedded in the wing, while others tore through the thick fleshy skin of the wing, leaving great gashes. This unexpected assault made the black Eva lose control of its flight and career wildly through the air. It missed a clumsy swipe with its blade but ended up colliding with Unit-02. The flailing Eva's stomach connected with Unit-02's face as it neared the ground, the butt of one of the steel spikes striking Unit-02 squarely between its four eyes. The weight and speed of the falling Eva knocked Unit-02 over and onto its side and both Eva's skidded along the plateau. Directly into one of the waiting helicopters.

***

"We've lost another helicopter," Aoba informed his superior.

'And that means more casualties,' Misato told herself. "What's the status of Unit-02?"

"One of its battery packs was damaged when the MP Eva struck Unit-02. It's down to ten minutes of power," Maya reported. "It looks like Rei also lost the rocket launcher in the collision."

'Hmm, one against one it still remains to be seen whether Rei can defeat this,' Misato thought. "How s the extraction proceeding?"

"Six helicopters have already left the field of engagement and are returning to base," Aoba reported. "Three have been destroyed and the other is being delayed by Captain Nanasawa to retrieve the missing soldiers."

"Good, once that transport has left tell the transport plane to pick up Unit-02," Misato ordered.

"But, ma'am, the First Child might destroy that last Eva," Hyuga pointed out, wondering why the Major seemed to be wanting to run from a fight.

"And she could also be killed, Lieutenant," Misato responded. "I've seen enough casualties for one day."

"The other Eva has become active again," Maya reported. The dull red arrow, which had fallen down to the base of the hill, glowed red once again and lifted up into the air.

'Oh God,' Misato inwardly cursed. 'Two against one are not good odds.'

***

Rei opened her eyes and tried to take in her situation. The rapid series of events had confused her senses and so she worked quickly to attempt to assess the situation. She could feel a pressure on her left side, a quick glance told her that this was the ground her Eva was lying on. Another glance told her the pressure on her right side was a black Evangelion slumped across Unit-02, its damaged wings acting as a kind of canopy over the two. And then her eyes fell on the destruction around her. Situated in front of Unit-02's chest was the wreckage of a helicopter, crushed as the two Evangelions plowed the earth up in their collision.

Spilling out of the wreckage were the mangled dead bodies of soldiers in their dark blue uniforms. But more disturbing than that was the _other_ bodies. She could see part of the container that had been inside the helicopter. She could see the tubes of LCL inside the container. And inside the tubes of LCL she could see the bodies. They looked human, but there was something alien to them. They only looked about the same age as her, their skin was pale white, just like her own, their fully exposed bodies floating inside the tubes were completely hairless. Most of the tubes had been smashed in the collision, spilling LCL across the grassy earth to mingle with the blood. Many of these strange bodies lay broken on the ground, the one nearest to her lay bonelessly on the floor, staring up at Unit-02 with empty eyes. Their eyes, that was what disturbed her the most.

"Red," Rei whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from the dead gaze. She felt the Eva lying on top of her move. Her gaze shifted back to her current enemy, trying to push the horrible vision from her mind.

"Rei, incoming from above!" Misato shouted at her. Rei looked up to see another Eva land just next to her head.

'Another target?' Rei thought, but her eyes quickly fell on the bloody stump of the Eva's right leg and the gaping hole in its chest, revealing a red orb at the centre of the wound. She saw that it was holding its sword in both hands, raised high with the point facing downwards, ready to pierce through Unit-02's head. Rei quickly rolled her Eva onto its back as she saw the blade descend. The Eva lying on the red Evangelion was dislodged from its position, sliding off the fighting machine onto the grassy earth, and directly into the line of the falling blade. The one-legged Eva accidentally skewered its companion's head with its large blade, leaving it lying on its stomach powerless to do anything. Its tongue lolled hideously out of its mouth as the blood trickled down the side of its head, looking pitch black against its dark skin. 

Rei took advantage of the one-legged Eva's momentary confusion to strike. She had lost her rocket launcher in the tumble with the now-pinned Eva so she quickly brought the rifle in her left hand up and round to aim at the one-legged Eva's head. She squeezed the trigger, sending a hail of bullets into its soft flesh. Blood rained down from the Eva's punctured head as it sagged down, putting its weight on its sword to remain upright, further pressing the weapon into the ground and increasing its partners discomfort. Rei used this window to get Unit-02 upright once again. She knew she merely needed to destroy the S2 engine and the Eva would be defeated, and with the Eva's S2 engine exposed as it was that should be a simple enough task. Unit-02's shoulder unit obediently deployed a progressive knife and she reached up to grasp the hilt of the blade. She brought the blade down by Unit-02's hip, still keeping the palette rifle in her left hand trained on the one-legged Eva. She flicked her wrist, causing the retractable blade to deploy. She moved forward to strike at the one-legged Eva as it was still trying to recover from the near point-blank shots to its head. 

Her right leg met resistance as she tried to move towards her target, looking down she saw the pinned Eva had grasped Unit-02's ankle. Blood spilled out of its mouth as its teeth parted in a sick grin. Whereas the previous pilot of Unit-02 may have become positively furious at this adversary's persistence Rei simply dealt with the situation as best she could. She realised that emotions would only cloud judgement in battle. She raised the Eva's right arm above its head, and then leant over towards the pinned Eva, bringing the progressive knife down in a stabbing strike, piercing the black Eva's wrist and pinning it to the earth as well. She then levelled the palette rifle at the small pyramidal lump between the Eva's shoulder blades, where the dummy plug was housed, and opened fire. The bullets chewed up the Eva's back and destroyed the red entry plug as soon as it was exposed. Soon after the rifle made the familiar _click, click _sound as its ammunition was expended. With the controlling dummy plug gone the Eva would be unable to move. 

Rei saw the large blade remove itself from the fallen Eva, causing a small gush of blood to flow down the sides of its head. She realised the one-legged Eva had recovered from her previous attack and had wrenched its weapon free from its fallen comrade. The Eva turned its blade round so the longer side of the double-ended sword was pointing upwards. Rei noted that it seemed to have no problem balancing on one leg. Rei discarded her spent rifle and retrieved her final progressive knife from her left shoulder unit. The black Eva seemed to regard her with suspicion as it watched Unit-02 begin to circle round it. It stood patiently watching her, its long blade held in its right hand, and its wings outspread, as if attempting to intimidate her. Rei knew that she was at a disadvantage in this encounter. Even though her opponent was badly injured it still had a far superior weapon to hers, and could take far more damage than Unit-02 could. 

She circled round the black Eva to the point where the Eva couldn't continue to face her unless it turned. The Eva began to twist its hip in order to turn and she saw her opening. Being within striking distance of the Eva she lunged forward with her prog knife. The black Eva's attention, however, was not entirely distracted by act of turning and saw the move coming. It brought its blade up to cover its chest and caught the prog knife as it moved in to strike. The two blades met and the purple glow of Unit-02's prog knife was extinguished as the blade broke and flew off. Rei was thrown slightly off-balance by the retaliatory strike, she was able to control Unit-02 but her momentary loss of concentration was all her opponent needed to justify an attack. The black Eva brought the blade round, from its guarding position over its chest, in a horizontal slash designed to separate Unit-02's upper torso from the rest of its body. Rei was able to rally herself in time to pull Unit-02 into a crouch to avoid the attack, and used the momentum from her strike to charge into her opponent.

***

Nanasawa saw the two titans tumble down, with Unit-02 landing on top of the heavily damaged MP Eva. He looked around the plateau. It was unrecognisable as the serene grassy viewpoint it had been mere minutes ago. The wreckage of helicopters, dead bodies and pools of blood littered the area. The ground had been churned up from the battle of the Evangelions. It was one of the most horrific sights he had ever seen. He still had no clue which way the battle would go, but with one of the MP Eva's down at least Unit-02 had more of a chance. He glanced to his left where the final helicopter was waiting to take off. He'd had to calm the pilot nearly every thirty seconds in order to prevent him from taking off prematurely. The man had military training but Nanasawa was now convinced that no amount of training could prepare a man for coming up against an Evangelion. He also noticed Dr. Akagi standing by the helicopter watching the two giants grapple with each other. That was one of the other things that irritated, and disturbed, him about her. She seemed completely unfazed by the carnage going on around her.

"Why didn't you leave on one of the other transports, Doctor?" he asked her, barely disguising his hatred for the woman.

"Are you irritated I'm still here?" she asked calmly, turning her head to look at him. A stray ray of sunlight was caught and reflected off her glasses. "I simply wish to see how this plays out Captain. I haven't had much news about anything over the past few weeks, and I'll take any opportunity I can to learn more about this situation."

'Yeah I bet you will,' he thought, grumbling to himself. There was definitely something odd about the woman, it felt like the more she learned the more dangerous she became. He couldn't quite place his finger on it but he knew she was up to something.

"Captain, look!" Hayasaka shouted. He had been standing watch on the path leading from the base of the hill. Nanasawa looked over to where the man was standing. He could just see the helmeted heads of soldiers appearing over the edge of the plateau as they came up the path.

"Thank God," he said in relief. He quickly jogged over to the helicopter and stuck his head through the side door into the transport compartment. "We're taking off as soon as the men get into the transport, get ready!" he shouted at the pilot. The pilot stuck his thumb up to show his acknowledgement and then began busily hitting controls in the cockpit. The handful of soldiers in the helicopter seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. Nanasawa stepped away from the helicopter and turned to Ritsuko once again. "You'd better get inside now, we're-" he stopped as he noticed she seemed to be staring intently at something.

"Black skin," she mumbled. Nanasawa followed her line of sight just in time to hear a scream. The three soldiers' who had came up the path had now surrounded Hayasaka. One had his arm around the man's throat while the other two grabbed his arms. His helmet was also lying on the floor an apparent victim of the struggle.

"What the-?" Nanasawa exclaimed as he saw the men all had jet-black skin. He raised his rifle and aimed it at one of the three attackers.

"Help me, Captain!" Hayasaka shouted as he struggled to free himself from their grip.

"Captain, what do we do?" Tsubasa asked trying to aim his rifle with shaking gloved hands. He was standing nearby Hayasaka and so was the first to notice the change that came over him. Suddenly black seemed to flow like oil from under his shirt up his neck. Hayasaka started screaming, looking with terrified eyes at his own body. He didn't know what was going on as his uniform covered all his skin, but it was obvious he felt something was happening to him.

"Shoot them!" Nanasawa shouted. He took aim at the man who had Hayasaka by the neck, he could recognise the man by his build as Sergeant Obari. He offered a quick mental apology to the man and pulled the trigger. He had expected the man's head to explode and his body to drop limply to the ground. What actually happened was a lot less graphic, but far more frightening. Just before the bullet hit its target an orange hexagon seemed to appear in mid-air, just inches from Obari's face, to stop the bullet before disappearing, leaving the bullet to drop harmlessly to the floor. Nanasawa stared dumbfounded at this. He fired a few more shots, each at the two other men, but each of his shots elicited the same reaction.

"What's going on Captain?" Tsubasa asked, his voice racked with fear. He had attempted to take down one of the men also but had been just as fruitless. By now Hayasaka had been completely overtaken by the black colouring moving over his skin. The three men released him, and then all four seemed to turn as one to stare at Tsubasa. The man took a panicked step backwards and tripped, landing on his back he tried to crawl away. Although the four men seemed to move very slowly they were close enough to Tsubasa to catch him with little effort. Nanasawa watched in horror as all four descended upon the helpless Tsubasa. Nanasawa put his hand on a grenade strapped to his belt and was about to remove it when Ritsuko spoke up.

"You can't kill them," she said coldly, regarding the scene with an odd fascination. "They are protected by AT fields," she informed him, "that grenade won't do anything to them."

"What?" he snapped at her, but he knew she was right. As if to reinforce his decision a group of civilians appeared coming up the path, their skin too was jet-black. "Damn it!" he cursed to himself. "Get in the helicopter," he ordered Ritsuko over his shoulder, "we're leaving, now!"

"Captain!" Tsubasa screamed in terror from under the four men who had pounced on him. As Nanasawa clambered into the helicopter and ordered the pilot to take off he tried to ignore the terrified screams of Tsubasa.

***

Out of the corner of her eye Rei saw the last helicopter take off. She returned her attention to her enemy pinned underneath her. She flicked her wrist once again causing the rest of the prog knife's retractable blade to shoot into place. She brought her arm back and again struck out at the black Eva's exposed S2 engine. The blade hit home, digging into the red orb. Sparks flew as the blade bit deeper into the Eva's weak spot. At the same time the black Eva brought its sword up underneath Unit-02 and jammed its point into the red Eva's chin. Rei's head was forced back under the pressure exerted by the blade. She could feel the blood dripping out of Unit-02's chin onto its enemy below. Pushing her jaw tight shut to stop her crying out in pain she looked out down her nose at the black Eva, she could only see the S2 engine on the edge of her vision. Sparks still flew from the prog knife as it cut further into the engine, but it still remained functional. She summoned her strength and pushed down as hard as she could on the hilt of the knife. As if in response the black Eva pushed harder on its sword. Rei gave a small cry of pain as the blade sunk deeper into Unit-02's chin. It felt like her mouth was filling with blood. She had to fight the urge to vomit and continue to press down on the blade. Something within the S2 engine seemed to give way and the prog knife sunk down into the red orb to its hilt. Suddenly the sparks from the prog knife ceased, and cracks appeared all over the black Eva's S2 engine. The MP Eva looked up at her, its lips spread wider apart, exaggerating its almost permanent grin, before its head finally flopped uselessly onto its side. The sword tip slid out of Unit-02's chin, the force holding it there now gone. Unit-02 stood up, it's head seemingly raised in triumph as blood still trickled from the wound on its chin.

"Good work Rei," Misato spoke to her. "You can return now." Rei nodded her acknowledgement, her face showing no sign that anything at all had happened to her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. She looked to her left to see the black Eva move. The black Eva which should not be able to move, because she had destroyed it's dummy plug. It pulled its legs up underneath it and pushed up with them. It's torso straightened up as it became upright. Rei saw it carried its sword in its right hand, and the prog knife she had used to pin its wrist was carried in its left hand. Blood seemed to pour from everywhere, its torn and useless wings, the wounds caused by the five spikes in its stomach, and the huge hole in its head, a product of a misjudged strike by its partner, gushed blood nearly continuously. It turned its head to 'look' at her again and grinned, baring its bloodstained teeth.

***

"Target-02 is moving," Maya reported.

"What?" Misato asked, not believing what she was hearing. "You said that if its dummy plug was destroyed an MP Eva couldn't function."

"It shouldn't be able to function with no orders, unless…" Maya trailed off.

"Berserker?" Misato offered.

"It's a possibility, but the thing doesn't seem to be acting any differently," Maya explained.

"It doesn't matter now, its still active," Misato said, deciding to put the conjecture aside until later. "Tell the transport plane pilot to pick up Unit-02 right now, and put me through to Rei."

***

"Rei," Misato began as her image appeared in Unit-02's entry plug. "Do not engage the enemy, pull out immediately," she ordered. Once again Rei simply nodded. The black Eva watched Unit-02 as it moved away from it and eventually went down the hillside to the plain below. The group of people, with strange jet-black skin, joined the black Eva as it watched Unit-02's exit from the battle. Looks of hatred were on all of their faces.

***

"So you ordered the First Child to pull back?" Gendo Ikari asked the purple haired major. Once again Misato found her facing the Commander of NERV from across his desk. His eyes, partially hidden by his orange tinted glasses, stared at her over steepled fingers.

"Yes sir, I believe it was the most prudent course of action. The mission objective had been achieved. Also Unit-02 was at a disadvantage, it was unarmed and had only three minutes operational time remaining," she reported. "Also an unknown number of enemy ground forces were moving up the hill, we had no knowledge of their capabilities."

"Yes, this mysterious enemy force that was mentioned," Gendo paused for a moment. "I trust everything else will be included in your report. You are dismissed."

"Sir," Misato spoke up quickly. "If you don't mind I would like to ask a question."

"It depends what that question is," Gendo answered, and stared back at her. Misato realised he was waiting for her question.

"Do you have any knowledge of this situation you are withholding?"

"Are you accusing me of deliberately keeping you in the dark?" Gendo asked, his voice betraying no emotion.

'Of course that's what I'm accusing you of!' Misato thought, but was able to stifle the urge to shout that out. "Of course not sir, I simply believe it would benefit you as well as I if we both had full access to all information pertaining to this situation. It would, for one, allow me to better plan further encounters."

"Well, Major, I'm sorry to say I know just as much as you. However I would like to congratulate you on dealing with the situation effectively today," he added.

'Is this some attempt to buy me off with complements?' Misato wondered. She knew if the Commander was being openly congratulatory towards people that he must have his own reason to do so. "Thank you sir, but I do not believe the situation was handled as well as it could have been. We did suffer thirty five percent casualties, and lost several valuable pieces of equipment."

"But the targets were retrieved successfully. For the moment that is all that matters," he then looked away to retrieve some paperwork from a draw in his desk. Their conversation was seemingly over.

"Sir, if I may ask-" Misato began, attempting to question him on the nature of the 'materials.' She had seen them herself, and like all the other people that had seen them, had been deeply disturbed. The haunting similarity to the sight she had seen in the Chamber of Gauf was one she couldn't shake.

"That will be all Major," Gendo said before she had even finished her sentence. She nodded and left the massive office.

"Major," Maya called to her as she saw her leaving her office. She had been waiting outside the Commander's office during their meeting. Misato turned to look at the woman, seeing her standing with a clipboard held to her chest at the office's entrance.

"Yes, Lieutenant Ibuki?"

"The evacuation of the remaining residents of Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3 has been complete," Maya reported. The evacuation had been the first thing she had ordered when she had returned four hours earlier. Apparently the Geofront was now the only remaining NERV installation uncompromised by enemy forces. She knew that Tokyo-2 and 3 would be nearly impossible to defend so had ordered the evacuation in order to remove the burden of protecting the local populace. She had delegated the task of monitoring the evacuation to Maya.

"Hmm, quicker than expected," she commented. She had expected it to take at least a day.

"Well a lot of people had left the city after the incident four days ago," Maya explained. "Also many people were unable to afford transportation away from the city, or refused to leave. They have been relocated to spare quarters in the Geofront," she then proffered the clipboard she held. "These are the names of those who are now staying in the Geofront." Misato nodded her thanks as she accepted the board complete with its sheaf of papers. "The most time consuming part was moving all the patients and equipment from the hospital to our infirmary," Maya added.

"Was there enough room for all the patients?" Misato asked.

"No, we've had to put some of the less critical patients in spare quarters near to the infirmary."

"Okay, good work Lieutenant," Misato said, still skimming through the list of names. "We're probably going to have a big day tomorrow, it would be probably be for the best if you got some-" Misato suddenly stopped talking, her eyes seemed riveted to a name on the list.

"Major?" Maya asked, concern showing in her voice.

"Shinji?"

***

"Shinji?" The boy ignored her. He sat on the small bed at the side of the grey spartan room. It reminded her of the cell Ritsuko had been imprisoned in. He sat with his head resting against the wall, staring at the ceiling. His S-DAT was lying in the palm of his left hand by his side, the headphones in his ears.

"Shinji?" she took a step into the room.

"Go away," he said quietly, his eyes not shifting from their position.

"Shinji why are you still here?" she asked tentatively. He looked even worse than before. His face was haggard and gaunt.

"I don't know," he replied in a half-whisper. "I don't understand Misato. I don't understand anymore."

"Understand what Shinji?"

"Anything," he said, a hint of sadness showing through in his voice.

"Can't I do anything?" Misato asked, sincerity in her voice.

"No," he answered. "Nobody can help me. I can't even help myself. I'm disgusting." Misato was taken aback by the calm way he said those words, as if they were an undeniable truth.

"Shinji," she said, trying to comfort him.

"Go away," he repeated. Misato looked at the boy as he continued to ignore her presence. Her vision blurred slightly as tears welled up in her eyes. She wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist before turning away to leave. Once again nothing she could say could change anything about how he felt, and she knew it.

'Damn it Shinji, why do you keep hurting yourself?' she wondered, choking back emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. 'Why do you keep hurting me?'

Once Misato had left Shinji looked down at the S-DAT player in his hand. The symbol in the corner continued blinking, showing the batteries had run out. It hadn't worked for the past week, but he still put the headphones in his ears every now and then. It reminded him of times when he could just put on the music player and cut himself off from the world for a while. He looked across to the letter that also lay on the bed. A letter from Rei.

_"I wish to talk to you, Ikari. Please meet me at the lakeshore tonight."_

It was short, but to the point. He had found it here when he had been allocated his quarters. Rei must have went to the trouble of finding out where he would lodge and left the letter here for him to find. It seemed heartfelt, but in that cold way Rei always used. She still scared him.

'Why would she want to speak to me? What could I do for her?' Nothing, he realised.

He wouldn't go.

***

Rei sat and watched the sky turned blood red as the sun slowly sunk beneath the mountains.

'What were they? Am I them? Are they me?' Rei thought.

_The one nearest to her lay bonelessly on the floor, staring up at Unit-02 with empty eyes. Their eyes…_

She shivered slightly, despite the light from the dying sun warming her.

'My letter should convince Ikari, should it not? He should come.' She had spent a lot of her life waiting. Waiting to pilot, waiting for synch tests. But this was the first time she waited for someone purely by choice. 

She believed that writing a letter would be the best way to contact him. She still didn't understand his rejection of her that day in the elevator. She had thought perhaps her forwardness in speaking to him directly had scared him off, so she had decided to send him a letter instead. He did seem to care for her after all.

_"Rei! I'm so glad, I can't believe you're alive. Why isn't my father here? Anyway, thank you for saving my life."_

"For doing what?" Rei said, repeating her words from that time.

_"You saved me… by sacrificing Unit-00."_

"Oh, did I save you?"

_"Don't you remember?"_

"I just don't know that. I think… I think I must be the third one." She hadn't remembered at the time, but she did now. She remembered everything he had done for her, all the care he had shown for her. That was a precious memory to her, that day in the hospital. It was the last time he had shown affection for her. 

'Why have you never spoken to me, Ikari?' she thought. 'Do you no longer care for me?' This could be the last chance she had to speak to him, Major Katsuragi had informed her that she expected an attack on the Geofront within the next twenty-four hours. She was scared, scared of dying. She was no longer a clone, she was an individual. This meant she held a new perspective on life, and a new fear of death. Would she survive her next encounter? That was a question she did not know the answer to.

The waters of the lake seemed to turn pitch black as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Rei pulled her knees closer to her chest.

"He isn't coming," she told herself.

****

End of the fifth day

Author's notes:

Well this chapter ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would, but hey, more word count for me!

Anyway I particularly enjoyed writing this chapter as my real joy in writing fanfiction is… writing epic battle scenes! If you enjoyed that battle please let me know, I would really appreciate it!

Also those ACC's were fun to write. If you liked them let me know too, as I am considering resurrecting Obari, Kikuchi and Ishida for their own side story, maybe End of Evangelion: The Guards Story? Who knows…

Anyway just some random information for you, Nanasawa and his two lackeys Hayasaka and Tsubasa are all named after Megatokyo characters. Obari, Kikuchi and Ishida were all names of staff members who worked on Detonator Orgun (It was the closest DVD to me when I was looking for Japanese names! ^_^ )

Anyway, this AN's are turning out to be longer than I expected too, so before I go there's just time to say that GC is being put on hold for a little while while I write my entry to the Paint It Black competition over on EFO, but don't worry it'll be back in about two months, I guarantee it! Also just wanna thank The Seldon Planner for agreeing to host GC on his new site www.geocities.com/etherworldsstudio it contains a lot of work by other authors too so take a look.


	7. The Sixth Day

****

Neon Genesis Evangelion:

The Genesis Crisis

The sixth day:

A Day Like Today

"Good morning Misato," Ritsuko said in a professional tone as the purple haired woman walked into Central Dogma. Misato ignored the ex-head of NERV's science division who was sitting at one of the workstations sipping a cup of coffee, and turned around to walk out of the cavernous room. "So our relationships still a frosty one then?" Ritsuko asked as she heard Misato's retreating footsteps. Misato stopped in the doorway, not turning back to look at her former friend.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, a threatening undertone in her voice.

"Just following orders, Major."

"I guess I'll leave you to your work then," Misato told her, before resuming her path.

"And I have some information for you," Ritsuko said, just loud enough for the Major to hear. She waited with a smug grin on her face for Misato to turn round and come back to ask her what the information was.

"I'm not interested in your information!" Misato cried, from the corridor outside, her voice echoing through the expanse of Terminal Dogma. Ritsuko suddenly panicked, losing her cool for a split-second.

"It's an Angel!" she shouted, turning round in her chair to face the exit from Central Dogma. The sound of footsteps paused, leaving only the hum of computers hanging in the air between them.

"That's impossible Ritsuko," Misato replied, some uncertainty showing in her voice.

"You know it as well as I do, Misato," Ritsuko said confidently. "You can't deny the facts." A few seconds later the sound of footsteps began again, but now they got gradually louder.

"So what are these facts?" Misato asked once she was standing in the doorway again, arms folded over her chest and a stern look on her face.

"Come now Misato, the odd colouring should have tipped you off that these weren't normal Evangelion. And SEELE attacking their own bases? Please, they may be mad, but they know what they're doing."

"But Kaworu was the last Angel, and he's dead," Misato countered, confidence restored to her voice. "There can't be anymore."

"You actually believed Ikari when he told you Kaworu was the last Angel? He was supposed to be, but circumstances appear to have changed," Ritsuko told her, a small smirk appearing on her face.

"How do you mean?" Misato asked, still sceptical of Ritsuko's words.

"Well you didn't think I would just unlock the doors within the facility when I was connected to their system did you? There was a lot of information in there, Misato, a lot of secrets Ikari would rather stay buried." Misato couldn't believe what she was hearing, NERV appeared to be a never-ending well of secrets. Just when she thought she knew all of its secrets another came along to take her completely off-guard.

"What kind of secrets?" Misato pushed, hiding her inner surprise.

"Now what would be the fun in just telling you?" Ritsuko began, about to launch into some cryptic speech.

"Just tell me Ritsuko," Misato interrupted her.

"Project-N, that's your starting point," Ritsuko told her. Misato marched over to Ritsuko as the blonde woman watched her with interest. She grabbed her by the breast of her lab coat and pulled her up out of the chair.

"I don't have time for this Ritsuko," Misato barked into her face. "Cut the crap and tell me what's going on!"

"And if I don't?" Ritsuko sneered at her, seemingly unfazed by her old friend's rough treatment of her.

"You'll die, idiot!" she growled at her.

"It's intriguing how you think that would bother me," Ritsuko replied calmly. Misato was about to shout at her captive again when another voice was heard.

"Major Katsuragi, please meet me in my office, I have something I need to discuss with you." Misato looked around to see Gendo Ikari standing on the top floor of the Control Tower, staring down at her once again. He looked across to the woman she had in her grasp. "Dr. Akagi, please continue with your work," he told her before turning and walking out of Central Dogma. Misato turned back to her old friend, who was now looking rather smug. She opened her mouth several times before thinking of something to say.

"We'll continue this discussion later," she finally said before releasing her grip on the woman's lab coat and letting her fall back into her chair. Misato turned round and made her way out of Central Dogma and towards the Commander's office. As she left the massive room she heard one last parting shot from Ritsuko.

"If there is a later, that is."

"You are aware the Geofront is the only remaining un-compromised NERV facility?" Gendo asked from his usual position behind his desk.

"Yes sir, I was informed yesterday," Misato answered.

"So you know that the enemy's next target will be the Geofront?"

"Yes sir."

"Have preparations been made to defend our position?"

Misato nodded. "Repairs to the armour plating have been completed. Armament towers within the Geofront have been repaired and are all fully functional. NERV guards and all those who volunteered to defend the base have been issued with weapons and organised into squads. Unit-02 still has some superficial damage from the battle yesterday, however that should not hinder its combat performance, sir."

"What of the materials retrieved yesterday?" Gendo inquired.

"Yes sir, what of them?" Misato asked, pushing her luck to try and get an answer.

"They are resources we can use, Major," Gendo replied, stressing her rank to make sure she knew who was in charge. "What they are is of no import to our current situation."

"What's Project-N, Commander?" Misato asked suddenly. Gendo stared back at her, his eyes narrowing behind his tinted glasses.

"You are an integral part of this operation, Major, if you were unable to fulfil your duties it would be unfortunate, both for me and for you. Project-N is of no concern to you, you would do well to remember that," Gendo responded coldly. Misato had to fight not to swallow nervously, she would be damned if she was going to show the Commander that his threat scared her. "You are to reactivate the materials, Dr. Akagi will aid you in this matter. They will be used to complement our defence force."

"Yes sir," Misato nodded.

"That will be all."

__

_ The waters of the lake seemed to turn pitch black as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Rei pulled her knees closer to her chest._

_"He isn't coming," she told herself._

'He didn't come,' Rei remembered, as she stood in one of the great warehouses within the Geofront. She had sat on the beach for another hour after this realisation had dawned on her. The logical part of her brain told her to get up and leave, to return to her apartment where she stood less chance of catching cold or some similar illness. But some part of her brain made her stay hoping in vain the brown haired boy would make his appearance. Eventually that part of her brain gave up as well and she left the lakeshore, its waters then so placid it seemed like a giant mirror. The logical part of her brain told her to stop thinking about that incident, to stop wondering why he had not come. She knew it would do her no good, and she had more important things to worry about. However, as always, a part of her brain still persisted to replay the night over in her mind, trying to deduce a reason.

'Red,' she thought, as she stared at the naked, floating body within the tube of LCL. She pressed her hand against the glass of the tube, noticing how similar the colour of her skin was to the skin of the being inside. Again she wondered as to the nature of these people, even though she knew the answer would not help her current situation in any way.

"Rei?" a voice called to her. She removed her hand from the tube and turned to see Major Katsuragi standing at the end of the aisle of tubes looking at her.

"Yes, Major," she replied in her normal quiet tone.

"What are you doing down here?" Misato asked, a puzzled look on her face. She had never seen Rei anywhere other than school, NERV, or her apartment, only the places she needed to go. Rei hesitated for a moment before answering. It was as if she was unsure herself why she was in the large warehouse that the 'materials' were being stored in.

"I was… interested, by these creatures. I wished to find out more about them," she replied.

'Hmm, I guess it's not surprising, everyone seems to be eager to find out what these are, and where they came from, and why the Commander was so eager to get them he risked Unit-02 and Rei to do it. But it looks like he is the only one who holds the answers,' Misato thought. She turned back to Rei, realising that in her wondering her eyes had drifted towards one of the 'materials' nearby. "You'd better go to your quarters Rei," Misato informed the girl, "Dr. Akagi will be coming down here soon and Commander Ikari wants to keep the two of you as far apart as he can." Rei nodded in compliance and began to head towards the nearest exit to the large room. As she passed Misato she halted for a brief moment.

"Major, why does Dr. Akagi hate me?"

Misato was slightly startled by the question but answered honestly nonetheless.

"I don't know Rei, I really don't know." Silence filled the air between the two for a few seconds before Misato heard Rei's footsteps re-commence as she exited the room.

Misato stared around the room for a few seconds, taking in the rows of orange tubes. Each contained a pale skinned, hairless person, none of them showing any signs of life at all. She shuddered and moved on, trying to locate a technician within the massive room.

'No wonder more people haven't been down here to poke around,' she thought as she tried to shake off the feeling of being watched.

He placed his money in the slot on the machine and then typed a four-digit code into the keypad. One of the circular platforms inside the machine revolved with a low whirring sound, bringing an item to the front before the small clear plastic door covering it swung open. Shinji took the packaged tuna sandwich out of the vending machine and closed the small door on its front.

He turned away from the vending machine to view the room he was in. It was one of several NERV cafeterias scattered throughout the Geofront. This one wasn't exactly the nearest to his current residence, but it was the nearest to his position when he had suddenly felt pangs of hunger accompanied by a low growling in his stomach. The room was quite large, large enough to accommodate most workers in the vacinity for lunch, should they all decide they felt hungry simultaneously. But it appeared that at the minute the facility was not in particular demand. This surprised Shinji, especially since the population of the Geofront had been significantly increased with hospital staff and Tokyo-3 residents. However it was a pleasant surprise. He had not wished to be too near people for too long.

Seeing that the room was unusually empty he decided to stay in the cafeteria to eat his purchase. He sat down at one of the long empty tables and took the sandwich out of its small plastic triangular shaped container. It was odd, he thought, as he took a bite out of his food, that everything seemed duller to him. The bread tasted stale, the tuna tasted acidic, the lettuce and other greenery's tasted limp. In short it tasted foul to him. He didn't bother checking the expiry date on the sandwich box, he knew there was nothing wrong with the food itself. He was the problem. The great weight of confusion and sadness pressing down on his mind seemed to be spilling over into all parts of his body. He kept his eyes down on the table as he continued eating, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone else in the room.

He didn't remember what time it was when he had woken up, and it didn't really matter to him. He didn't know what time it was now, or indeed how long he had been awake for. His mind kept on returning to all that had occurred over the past few days, and seemed to dwell on his failures. He couldn't kill himself, he couldn't run away, what could he actually do? Even now he could have just wandered around the Geofront forever, ignoring the pleas of his body to find sustenance and hope that he starved to death. But yet here he was, sitting in a cafeteria slowly chewing a sandwich that tasted like poison.

Quite what he had been looking for within the Geofront, he didn't know. He just wanted somewhere quiet to sit and think about all that had happened, to try and make some sense of it. His room made him feel uncomfortable. He couldn't quite place why, but the combination of the cold steel walls, the grey, drab colouring within, and the lack of any real furnishings made the room feel oppressive. Like a prison cell. He had to get out and find somewhere else, but the cafeteria seemed to be the only place he had found so far.

"Shinji?" he heard a gentle voice say. He ceased his chewing, keeping his eyes on the white tabletop in front of him. "Shinji is that you?" He recognised her voice, it was Maya Ibuki. He couldn't see her, and he had no intention of changing the direction of his gaze, but he knew she was standing close to him. Silence followed while Maya awaited the teenage boy's reply. "So, um, how are things? I hope you don't mind the room we put you in," Maya asked cheerfully, trying to strike up a conversation.

"It's good enough for me I suppose," Shinji replied quietly, resuming his chewing. A brief look of shock flitted across the Lieutenant's face, unbeknownst to Shinji, before a half-smile replaced it.

"Well, I know they're not great, but I'm afraid they're the best we can offer at such short notice. Sorry I couldn't get anything better for you," the shorthaired woman said apologetically. The boy made no motion to show he had even heard what she had said, and stayed totally silent. The small smile on her face faded, a worried expression appeared to replace it. "Shinji, is it okay to talk to you?" she asked in a more sombre tone of voice. As expected there was no response from the boy. She decided to take the initiative and sit by him anyway. The muscles in Shinji's back tensed as he felt the woman sit down next to him. Almost too close for comfort, he thought, but he made no attempt to move.

"Shinji," Maya began, "the Major has told me about… what you've been going through. I just wanted to say that, well, if you have problems you should really talk to someone about them. I'm not saying you need to confide in me, but I'm sure there's someone who you can turn to when you need help."

"Just one," Shinji replied, making Maya feel slightly happier that she had got a response from him. "But she's…" he trailed off, his gaze dropping slightly.

"Shinji, I know the Major seems busy a lot these days, but she does care about you. She… she's worried about you, and if you need to talk to her, I'm sure she would find some time-"

"I wasn't talking about Misato," Shinji interrupted her, his voice still quiet. "She doesn't care about me anyway, the only reason she let me stay with her is because I'm part of her job. I'm just a tool to her."

"Shinji, no, that… that just isn't true. Other people might just think you're an Eva pilot, but the Major really worries about you," she protested, leaning forward slightly to try and look the boy in his face.

"Even if that were true what could she do to help me? She doesn't know what I've been through, nobody does. Nobody knows the pain of being an Eva pilot…" his voice trailed off. He put his half-eaten sandwich down and stood up. He turned and started walking towards the door. Maya watched him leave the room, trying to think of something to say to the boy, but nothing came. All she could do was watch the white shirt on his back hanging on his slumped shoulders as he walked away. After his departure she got up and returned to the table she was previously sitting at.

"I guess it didn't go well," Hyuga commented as he noticed the downcast look on her face.

"No," Maya conceded sadly, as she sat down at the table. "It's like… he's…" she attempted to vocalise her thoughts. "I don't know what's wrong with him," she admitted, folding her arms on the table and resting her chin on them.

"You should've just left him alone, like I told you," Aoba told her as he shovelled another forkful of curry and rice into his mouth. "Sometimes a guy's just got to work out his problems for himself."

"You might be right," Maya said, turning her head to look at the doorway the brown haired boy so recently exited from. "But then again..."

"Listen, it's no use worrying over him," Hyuga consoled the defeated woman. "You tried your best, I'm sure deep down Shinji's grateful for that, but there's nothing more you can do about it. You should just carry on like normal, I'm sure Shinji will get over whatever is troubling him sooner or later." Hyuga offered a small smile to try and make the NERV technician feel better, while Aoba nodded in agreement to what his friend had said. Maya looked back up at the two sitting opposite her and responded with a small forced smile before resting her head on her arms once more.

"Anyway we'd better get back to Terminal Dogma, our lunch breaks nearly over," Hyuga informed the other two at the table, before standing up and making his way towards the exit. Maya followed him out, while Aoba quickly wolfed down the remainder of his lunch before heading after them.

Fuyutsuki's eyes roamed across the expanse of the Geofront, taking in the hills around its edge, the lake near its centre and the forests and grassy plains that surrounded it. He had always enjoyed the view of the artificial landscape from the Commander's office, indeed it was really the only thing that had made him jealous of the Commander. Regarding his position within NERV at least.

He turned round to survey the long high-ceilinged room that served as Gendo Ikari's office, his eyes tracing the pattern of the Tree of Life etched into the room's floor. It was one thing Fuyutsuki never understood about the man. He had known him for nearly twenty years and in all that time he had never taken him to be a vain man or a man obsessed with material gain. Why then did he have such a grandiose room to manage the affairs of NERV from?

He ceased his wondering and returned his attention to the small board on Ikari's table, with several pieces spaced out across its checked surface. He scanned the board to see if any pieces had moved since he last looked at it. The game seemed to have not moved. He looked up at the figure of Gendo Ikari sat on the other side of the gargantuan desk. His fingers were interlaced in front of his mouth, as they always were, as if providing a safety net should his glasses suddenly fall off. Behind his glasses his eyes slowly moved from piece to piece, examining each in turn. Occasionally his gaze would dart quickly from one piece to another and then back again just as fast. Fuyutsuki watched the silent man contemplate his next move.

'When you play chess against another person, there true self is revealed to you,' Fuyutsuki recalled reading once before. And he had to admit that, as far as he could see, it was correct. Gendo Ikari was always cold and calculating whenever he challenged Fuyutsuki, sometimes taking hours to make his next move. Just like in real life all of Gendo's moves were meticulously planned. In all the games they had played together over the past ten years Fuyutsuki could only remember a handful of occasions when he had bested his superior. Gendo's victories were too many to count, although he was sure that should he ask the Commander he would be able to provide him with the exact number.

Fuyutsuki picked up the small paperback book he had brought with him. He found he had the time to read through several chapters during one of their games, and it was far more interesting than simply watching the Commander study the board for several hours. He opened the book at his bookmark and began silently reading through the next paragraph.

"Why didn't you tell her the truth?" he suddenly asked, keeping his eyes on the page in front of him. Gendo's eyes did not cease their scrutiny of the board as he replied.

"Why should I have told her?"

"She asked, Ikari, and you have no reason to keep the information from her. Whatever the outcome of the current situation her knowledge of the truth will make no difference."

"Her knowledge of the truth could make all the difference," the bespectacled man replied calmly. "Giving her the information is a risk we can ill afford. We cannot predict how she would react, or what she would do with the information."

"She will know the truth, and I believe that is all she is after, to unravel the enigma that is NERV and the Angels."

"She searches for the truth, because she has a sense of duty to her dead lover. If she discovers the whole truth she will try to use it to bring down NERV, just as Mr. Kaji would have done. And it would be highly inconvenient for NERV to have a high ranking officer working against us at this juncture."

"But surely keeping the information from her will only distract her from the task at hand?" Fuyutsuki asked as he looked out of the corner of his eye at the Commander. Gendo's eyes rose from the wooden board to stare directly into his subordinates.

"The harm she would cause if she knew the truth is far greater than if she is kept ignorant. The threat of the Angel would not be enough to ensure the loyalty of the whole staff should she decide to share this information."

Fuyutsuki opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it. He knew that, once again, the man would not back down on this subject. He resumed his reading.

"Has there been any activity on the radar?" Misato asked as she leant against the back of Hyuga's high-backed chair. She stared out at the topographical display of the surrounding area projected into the empty space in front of the Control Tower.

"None so far, ma'am," Hyuga replied promptly.

"Any messages intercepted mentioning the Eva's?"

"No ma'am," Maya responded.

"Do we have any idea where the enemy is, or what it's doing?" Misato asked bluntly, looking around at the three technicians, who all stared blankly back at her.

"I'm afraid not ma'am," Aoba answered. "Are you sure that they will attack the Geofront? They were defeated last time they tried it, maybe they don't want to risk a second attempt."

"I don't think we're going to be that lucky," Misato dismissed his hopeful suggestion. "We have something it wants, and I don't think it's going to stop until it gets it."

"It?" Hyuga asked, puzzled at her constant use of the word. Misato sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

'God I'm tired…' she thought, before looking back at the black haired man. "I guess there's no reason to keep it from you. It's an Angel."

"An Angel!" Maya exclaimed. "B-But, they were all destroyed, right? The Commander even said so."

"Well it looks like we didn't get all of them," she said, her voice sounding tired.

"So, it's going to attack the Geofront then," Maya said quietly, looking down towards the floor in thoughtful realisation.

"So all those Eva's… they're all Angels?" Aoba asked.

"No, from what I can tell, it's just one Angel. Maybe it's able to spread itself and infect many things, like the eleventh. Or maybe it's the thirteenth, that seemed to attempt to infect Unit-00. Who knows what would have happened if it had succeeded. It was probably the thing that infected the MAGI," Misato theorised, stretching forward slightly to look over the edge on their level at the now useless MAGI below. The four were silent for a long while, thinking over what had been said.

"Anyway it doesn't matter now. It doesn't matter whether we know exactly what it is or not, all that matters is that it's an Angel, and we've had plenty of experience fighting them," Misato said. She tried to sound as optimistic as she could in an effort to rouse the three technicians who seemed somewhat downcast now. 'Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell them,' Misato thought, feeling slightly guilty. "The Geofront is still fully prepared for an attack isn't it?"

"Yes ma'am, we're as ready as we'll ever be," Hyuga answered, mirroring the Major's fake enthusiasm. "Unit-02 is fully prepared for battle. All the Guards who took part in the raid yesterday, and many more that volunteered, have been set up in a perimeter around the Geofront. The… er… materials are being deployed to support them as they're reawakened ma'am."

'Those damn things, what the hell are they?' Misato quickly suppressed her angry thoughts and focussed on the task at hand. "So how many men do we have to defend the base with?"

"We have three hundred and fifty seven guards, and one hundred and fifty of those… other things stationed outside the base so far, ma'am. There are fifty more of them still in 'storage' ma'am."

"So five hundred and fifty seven men to defend against Evangelions," Misato realised. She knew it didn't matter how many men they had they would still be massacred. As much as she hated to say it, the fate of the whole human race now rested on the shoulders of one blue haired girl.

"But, ma'am," Hyuga ventured, drawing the Major's attention from her thoughts, "none of the materials have been armed."

"What?!" she exclaimed. "Then what the hell are they going to do out there, act as cannon fodder?"

"I-I'm not sure, ma'am, but Dr. Akagi gave explicit orders for them not be given any weapons, she said they could take care of themselves. Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki vouched for her, ma'am."

'Jesus, are the Commanders trying to get us killed?' she wondered. She quickly composed herself and responded calmly. "Well we're just going to have to put our trust in the Commanders, I'm sure they have every reason-"

"Major Katsuragi," Aoba interrupted her, his voice seeming to tremble slightly. She looked to the longhaired man who seemed to be staring out at something. Her eyes widened as she followed his gaze to what had drawn his attention. Five red triangles had appeared at the northern most edge of the three-dimensional map of the local area, moving slowly but inexorably towards the centre of the map. The Geofront.

It had begun.

Nanasawa surveyed his troops. He was in command of roughly fifty men, all of whom were tired and scared, and mostly inexperienced in battle. Most of them had been hard at work this morning digging short, shallow trenches and foxholes to use as defensive positions, and as such their uniforms were stained with sweat and mud.

Nanasawa was currently standing behind a small wall of sandbags at the back of his troops. He was unhappy with his position at the rear of the ranks of soldiers. He would have preferred to lead the defence of the Geofront, to spur on the nervous soldiers with his actions. However he knew that should he be killed his small band of men would be left leaderless and disorganised. And in a battle such as the one to come that would spell doom for them. His radio crackled into life.

"Captain Nanasawa, do you read me?" the familiar voice of Major Katsuragi asked.

"Loud and clear Major, go ahead," he replied.

"Five targets have been detected moving towards the Geofront," Misato relayed the grim news in an emotionless voice, "chances are they're the Eva's. ETA is three minutes."

"Roger that, Major," Nanasawa replied in an equally dispassionate voice.

"Unit-02 will be deployed to engage the hostiles on the surface. If they break through into the Geofront we will recall Unit-02 to the Geofront to aid your defence there. Unit-02 will deploy its AT field in order to nullify the AT fields of the attackers. Good luck, Captain."

"Okay people," Nanasawa wasted no time addressing his troops. "Five enemy units have been confirmed, they should be arriving here in three minutes. Make sure you're ready by then." The soldiers immediately began busying themselves, checking magazines to see if they were fully loaded and adjusting their body armour. To most people they would seem like a well-oiled fighting unit, ready to take on any enemy, but Nanasawa knew different. He could feel it in the air around him, the panic spreading through the troops, the fear slowly building, even within him.

'Even if the Eva's don't have their AT fields we still don't stand a chance, those things are covered in several feet thick armour, and the best weapons we have are rifles,' he thought, looking back over his troops. 'Not a single high explosive weapon amongst the whole group.' He looked up towards the roof of the hemispherical Geofront, as if seeing the approaching enemy through it. 'We've just got to pray that Unit-02 does the job for us.'

"…is that clear?" Misato asked as she finished relaying her orders.

"Understood," Rei acknowledged in her usual quiet voice.

"The enemy will be arriving soon. Good luck, Rei." The small holographic window in the Entry Plug closed and Rei returned her attention towards the large grassy plain in front of her. Beneath this grassy plain lay the Geofront, if the enemy were to assault the NERV building the same way as they tried last time, they would have to come here. Rei was positioned in a similar location to the one where Shinji had awaited the arrival of these Eva's the first time they had attacked. Unit-02 was lying on its stomach in the shade of a nearby hill, an arsenal of weapons arrayed to its side nearby the concealed umbilical cable port in the side of the hill. Held straight out in front of the red Evangelion was one of the Rocket Launchers created for use by the Eva's.

So Rei waited, the only sound she could hear was the dull hum of the Evangelion as power coursed through its body from the umbilical cable. Her mind, unlike those of the defenders waiting nervously for the attack, was completely clear. No fear or apprehension clouded her mind, she knew what she had to do, and she knew what she had to do to achieve it. Her knowledge of the enemy told her that, should they penetrate the Geofront, the soldiers defending it would be wiped out. She knew she couldn't fail.

A shadow passed above her.

"Hostiles have arrived above the Geofront," Hyuga announced. The five red triangles were circling around the centre of the large three-dimensional map in Central Dogma.

"It doesn't look like they've spotted Unit-02, that's good," Misato said, sounding slightly relieved. "When they land Rei should attack. If all goes to plan she should incapacitate or damage all of them in her first attack. That should make it easier for her to deal with them."

"Hostiles are descending," Hyuga reported.

Rei watched the circle of black creatures all simultaneously tilt themselves to the side and begin a winding descent towards the grassy plain below. She looked down to watch their shadows grow larger as they approached the ground. She altered her aim to line up with the centre of the circle of shadows, allowing her to quickly find a target when the enemies touched down.

The ground buckled as the huge winged Evangelions completed their descent, landing on the grassy earth below and kicking up clouds of dirt. They tucked their wings in, but did not fold them away. Rei thought this was odd, but it made no difference to her orders. Rei shifted her aim slightly so that the targeting reticule lined up with the back of the closest Mass Produced Eva to her. If she hit it in the back now she could destroy its wings and severely cripple the Eva's mobility. She narrowed her eyes and tensed her finger on the butterfly controls in the Entry Plug.

Suddenly the Eva's spread their wings and with mighty flaps of the appendages soared back up into the air.

"Have they spotted Unit-02!?" Misato asked, worry creeping into her voice.

"I-I'm not sure, ma'am," Hyuga answered, sounding confused. "One of the Eva's is still on the ground, ma'am."

"What?"

Only four of the Eva's had taken flight, one calmly sat down in the middle of the plain.

'What is it attempting to achieve?' Rei wondered as she shifted her aim to target the remaining grounded Eva. She watched as its wings disappeared into its back. 'Has it been left as a lure? Are they attempting to draw out any defenders with it? If I fire at it my position will be revealed, and they will have the advantage,' she realised. She looked back up towards the other four Evangelions, still circling above the plain. They seemed to have not spotted her yet. Rei's mind quickly raced to deduce what her next course of action should be. 'If I fire upon the grounded Eva I will be spotted and attacked. If I fire upon the airborne Eva's I will most likely miss, and then I will be spotted and attacked. However if I wait I may still be spotted.'

Alarms began blaring within the Entry Plug. Rei quickly looked towards the small holographic windows that were springing into existence all round her. The closest read:

'Danger! High Energy Levels Detected.'

And then the Eva exploded.

Nanasawa shielded his eyes against the heat from the blast. All of a sudden a large orange bulge had appeared in the roof of the Geofront, before bursting open to spill flames and intense heat into the hemispherical space.

"This is Nanasawa," he called down the radio, "Major Katsuragi, what the hell just happened!?"

"One of the Eva Series just self-destructed, Captain," the Major's voice called over the radio, sounding slightly shocked herself at this turn of events.

"That means… the Geofront is completely open!"

Rei watched the circling Eva's peel off one by one and swoop down towards the newly formed gaping hole in the ground. She desperately tried to get a good shot at one of the diving Eva's but they were travelling at too high a speed for her to guarantee a hit.

"Major," Rei began, opening a communication line to the command tower. "The targets have breached the Geofront, request permission to pursue."

"Permission granted," Misato replied frantically. "The nearby catapult is ready to retrieve Unit-02."

'The chances of failure have increased,' Rei realised, knowing that now only a thin line of soldiers stood between those black giants and their target. "I will pursue the enemies directly," the quiet girl informed Misato, before standing her Eva upright once again and picking up a palette rifle from the small arsenal laid out beside her.

"Pursue them directly?" Misato questioned, but Rei made no reply. She pushed forward on the butterfly controls in the cockpit, starting the red Evangelion running towards the gaping hole, disconnecting her umbilical cable as she did so. The fighting giant covered the distance to the hole quickly before leaping down into the Geofront below. Rei's mind worked fast to analyse the sight below her, and rising up towards her fast.

Only one of the mass produced Eva's had landed, a fair distance from the defenders in their hastily prepared defences but it wouldn't take long for the sword-wielding creature to reach them. It seemed completely unfazed by the gunfire pattering against its armour as it stood up straight and calmly retracted its wings. Two more were slowly circling closer to the ground, preparing to land on the green landscape below. The last Unit was only roughly halfway towards the ground below, and crucially, directly beneath Unit-02.

Two giant feet slammed into the flying Eva's back, causing it to arch its back in a feeble attempt to get away from this unseen attack. Its wings, unable to control it's descent with the added weight of Unit-02 pressing down on it, snapped back to trail directly behind it, shrouding the figure of Unit-02, which seemed to be riding the Eva down towards the lush landscape below.

The black Eva struck the ground hard, skidding along with Unit-02 struggling to retain its balance on the creature's back. Under different circumstances the defenders of the Geofront might have laughed at the site of Unit-02 riding a mass produced Eva like some kind of giant toboggan. The Eva finally came to a rest at the head of a trail of churned up earth, with the red Eva that had disrupted its descent still standing upon its back.

Rei felt the Eva below it shift as it attempted to get up. She quickly brought the palette rifle in her left hand to bear on the figure pinned beneath her. Blood splattered out across the surrounding grass and trees and bullets tore into the black Eva's head, back and wings. Rei ceased firing as a shadow passed overhead, the Eva below her slumped back down again once the barrage of bullets had stopped. The four eyes of Unit-02 turned to see another mass produced Eva wheeling round in mid-air for an attack run. The winged Eva glided towards her at high speeds, bringing its sword round in an arc aimed at Unit-02's neck.

Rei was able to respond just in time, dropping the Eva down onto its knees, before leaning backwards to follow the black Eva as it passed overhead. Unit-02's right arm came up in one fluid movement, the Eva's position allowing it a perfect shot at the underside of its would-be attacker. The Rocket Launcher in its right arm flared brightly as a rocket streaked out of its barrel to impact the winged Eva at near point-blank range.

The rocket hit the Unit squarely between its left shoulder and neck, sending blood and gore flying out across the surrounding area. The impact of the rocket sent the black Eva into a spin, causing it to nosedive into the small forest nearby, ploughing up trees as it crashed into the ground.

"She jumped down the gap?" Misato asked in disbelief as she watched the green arrow that symbolised Unit-02 falling through the holographic map of the Geofront, before colliding with the red arrow of an MP Eva in mid-air.

"It's gained us some time Major," Hyuga pointed out. "If we were to recall Unit-02 via the catapult it would have taken us a few more minutes to re-deploy it in the Geofront."

'Huh, so there is method to her madness,' Misato thought to herself. The battle was joined and things were just going to get more complicated from now on. She stood thinking about what her next move should be, trying to ignore the panicked operators and sounds of computers and machinery all around her. The Commander's level of the control tower lay empty, and Misato expected it to stay that way, she had to stay in control of the situation herself. "Okay, are the Armament Towers and power points within the Geofront prepared?" she asked at last.

"As ready as they'll ever be," Aoba commented.

"Right, make sure communication channels to Unit-02 and all infantry commanders are ready at all times, this battle could hinge on information," Misato ordered, returning to her business-like manner.

"Yes, ma'am," the three NERV technicians replied in unison. Misato saw a red dot break away from Unit-02's position to crash into the forest nearby.

'This is going to be a tough battle,' Misato told herself. 'But the enemy has engaged all its assets, if we can destroy them now, then the threat will be gone.'

"Ma'am," Maya called to the purple haired woman. "Multiple signals detected on the surface. Reading one hundred and fifty- no, two hundred- wait, four hundred-"

"Where did they come from?" Misato asked, interrupting Maya's futile attempt to keep track of these new radar signals cropping up all over the map.

"They were too small to detect at long range," Maya explained.

"What are they doing?" Misato asked. She watched as the red dots began to cross the boundary of the hole in the centre of the plain, and descend towards the lake directly below it.

"It- It looks like they're throwing themselves off the edge of that hole, ma'am," the shorthaired woman replied, looking very puzzled.

_"…I know the Major seems busy a lot these days, but she does care about you. She… she's worried about you, and if you need to talk to her, I'm sure she would find some time-"_

Maya's words came back to Shinji as he continued on his slow walk through the corridors of the Geofront.

'But she never cared for me, I was just someone she needed to pilot the Eva for her,' Shinji told himself, watching the bland grey floor pass his feet by.

_"It doesn't matter now anyway. Shinji get into your plugsuit then get into Unit-01, now!"_

'As long as there are enemies to fight, and Eva's to pilot, she'll care about me.'

_"…I'm sorry. If there was another way I would have taken it…"_

_"…if you need to talk to her…"_

'Would she really listen to me? Would she really understand?' Shinji suddenly stopped walking in the middle of the corridor, those last thoughts seeming to echo through his mind. 'Would she-'

"Hey kid, what're you doing here?" a voice called out to him. Shinji turned round to see a NERV scientist walking up the corridor towards him. Shinji looked at the man, seemingly confused by the man's question.

"You're Shinji Ikari, right? Shouldn't you be piloting Unit-01 now?" the scientist asked, as he reached Shinji.

"No, I'm never going to pilot Unit-01…" Shinji said quietly, so quietly the scientist didn't catch all of it.

"We're being attacked you know. You should be out protecting the Geofront, not moping around here," the man pointed out angrily.

"W-We're being attacked?" Shinji asked.

"Of course! Dear God, did you not hear all those emergency broadcasts for people to take shelter?" Shinji realised he must have been too caught up in his own thoughts to have heard the alarms. "Anyway I've got to help activate those 'things,'" the man said, with some disgust in his voice, "so I don't have time to talk with you." And with that the man headed off down the corridor. Shinji stayed where he was, thinking about what the man had said.

'He doesn't have time to talk with me… will Misato?'

"Fuck," Nanasawa swore, as he saw a line of black figures come marching out of the lake. 'It's those 'things' again,' Nanasawa thought. Nobody could survive that fall from the surface so it could only be them. He remembered the screams of Tsubasa as the jet-black people surrounded him. "Major Katsuragi," he began as he contacted the Geofront's control tower. "I have visual confirmation of the targets advancing from the surface, they appear to be the same units that appeared at Choshi."

"The irregular infantry units?" Misato questioned him.

"It seems that way," he responded.

"Very well, continue your defence," the Major responded before ending the communication. Nanasawa realised more and more figures were marching out of the lake, like some drowned army come back from the dead. All around him machine gun's blared out at the four titanic black figures in the Geofront. He could see clearly they weren't doing anything to them, but he knew the men were more likely to run if they just stood around observing the battle with Unit-02. At least this way they could labour under the hope that a stray bullet could strike a previously unknown weak point on the mass produced Eva's, helping to turn the tide of the battle. But while the enemy Evangelions were engaged with Unit-02 the group of strange people was heading directly for the Geofront, and its rag-tag defence.

Rei narrowed her eyes as she shifted her Eva back into a kneeling position, bringing the still smoking rocket launcher round to aim at another enemy Eva. She squeezed the trigger and watched the rocket streak out over the landscape, but her target was ready and sidestepped the attack. Rei adjusted her aim to launch another rocket at the Eva, but then she realised something, one Eva was missing. Her sharp mind and senses realised what was happening and she quickly jerked her Eva backwards, the sudden movement causing the Eva to collapse backwards. As it fell back the missing Eva, which had taken off while she was fighting the previous two, came in for its attack, its blade cleaving the rocket launchers barrel in two, and barely missing Unit-02. Her Eva landed on its back, the remains of the rocket launcher sent flying out of its grip.

'I need to re-arm,' Rei realised. Now that she only had a palette rifle, with low ammo, she didn't stand much chance against the combined force of four mass produced Eva's. Also the counter to her right in the entry plug told her she only had two minutes power remaining. She had to find a power point and an Armament tower. Her knowledge of the Geofront told her that there was one nearby. She sat her Eva upright, just as the black Eva that had recently attacked her came into land nearby. She tried to push Unit-02 back upright, but found her movement restricted. Looking down she realised the Eva she had landed on had rallied itself and grabbed onto Unit-02's legs, grinning up at her with its face and back bloody from her close range attack. She brought the palette rifle back round to aim at the Eva again and fired. This time she aimed for the Eva's arms, bullets tore through its right forearm, sending chunks of flesh flying and severing its right hand. She managed to get a few shots off at the Eva's left arm before her ammo ran out. The attack didn't do a great deal of damage to the limb, but she succeeded in weakening its grip enough for her to free herself from its clutches. The other nearby Eva was approaching her now as well, she had to take this opportunity to get to the Armament Tower, she had wasted valuable time escaping from the damaged Eva and couldn't waste more time fighting this Eva.

"I require weapons from Armament Tower 06," she said over the communication system, as she stood her Eva upright finally and ran off towards the location of the requested tower. Just as she reached the location the ground split open and a large metallic tower, the size of Unit-02, sprung out of the ground. The red Eva grabbed the umbilical cable from the side of the tower and inserted it into the socket in its back. The metal shutter on the face of the tower folded down into the ground, revealing a small arsenal within. She grabbed two palette rifles and about faced to locate any nearby attackers. A black Eva was airborne, and heading towards her. She assumed it was the one that had previously destroyed her rocket launcher. She positioned the crosshairs on the display in her entry plug over the winged figure, and pulled the triggers on the butterfly controls. The barrels of both rifles flared into life as they spewed bullets out at the oncoming attacker. The salvo of bullets tore into the winged Eva, tearing chunks out of its skin, but its still came on. It brought its arm back to swing the great blade it wielded at the red Eva, but just as it prepared to launch its attacks, a bullet tore through its wing sending it off course. It desperately tried to right itself, but under the hail of bullets this was nearly impossible. It twisted slightly to its right, but this caused its sword to catch against the ground, flipping the Eva over onto its back, and twisting its arm into an awkward angle as it tried to maintain its grip on its sword, which had now become embedded in the ground.

Orange ripples burst into life across the Geofront as the defenders opened fire on the advancing figures. The jet-black people marched onwards in their strange robotic fashion, seemingly ignorant to the bullets tearing through the air around them. Not that they had anything to worry about. The AT fields each projected made them invulnerable, reducing the quite impressive display of force by the defenders to a futile gesture.

"Keep firing!" Nanasawa shouted over the roar of gunfire, as he saw a soldier hesitate when he went to reload. "Those shields can't stand up to much more punishment!" he lied. 'What the hell does NERV want us to do, try and scare them off? We haven't even killed one of them yet!' he silently cursed his employer.

Some of the enemies had come very close to the front line of defenders, they raised their hands palm outwards and the ground in front of them erupted into a cross-shaped explosion. Screams rang out as soldiers were caught in the explosion and sent flying through the air to land motionless a few feet away. Several men near to the oncoming attackers lost their nerve and turned to run, abandoning their guns and making a break for the perceived safety of the Geofront.

"Hold your positions!" the captain shouted at the fleeing troops, but they were blinded by fear and deafened by gunfire. Turning to watch the men run past him Nanasawa's eyes caught sight of the line of pale figures standing behind the defenders. They had simply been standing motionless several metres behind the line of defenders, now dressed in grey overalls, since they arrived on the battlefield, Nanasawa had actually forgot they were there, but now they were moving. They lurched forward in a strange parody of the attacker's odd gait, slowly making their way towards the front line.

A succession of explosions brought the soldier's attention back to the task at hand. He turned back to his troops to see the front line decimated by a series of cross-shaped explosions, bodies and limbs flying in all directions. Nanasawa ducked down and tried to cover his head as clods of earth rained down on him. More screaming assaulted his ears and he peered through narrowed eyelids to see injured men trying to pull themselves out of the trenches as more men deserted their posts.

'Jesus, this is turning into a massacre, I've got to do something,' Nanasawa grabbed the radio attached to his combat vest once again and brought it close to his mouth. "Major Katsuragi, this is Captain Nanasawa, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear Captain," the Major replied, sounding both stressed and distracted. "What's your situation?"

"Bad, major, I request permission-" the captain halted his withdrawal request mid-sentence as the pale-skinned figures lumbered past him, seemingly oblivious to the carnage going on around them.

"Captain? …Captain?" Misato queried down the line, trying to find out the reason for the soldiers sudden pause.

'What the hell are they doing?' he asked himself, watching the strange figures seemingly walk towards their deaths. All of the odd people seemed to reach the ruined frontline at the same time, and halted, just a few paces away from the black figures advancing upon them. As one the figures raised their arms, palm outwards towards the invincible attackers. Just as Nanasawa suspected another wave of explosion ripped through the Geofront, but what he didn't expect was that these explosions were targeting the jet-black figures invading the subterranean cave. The creatures were flung into the air and torn apart by the explosions that erupted within their ranks. Gunfire seemed to cease as soldiers paused to try and discover what had just happened. Even soldiers fleeing from the battle who had briefly looked over their shoulders halted their retreat. Another wave of explosions decimated the lines of the attackers, and all at once the soldiers realised that it was the strange red-eyed people who were causing this destruction. The defenders seemed instantly uplifted as they realised their tormentors were getting a dose of their own medicine.

"Major, the 'materials' are fighting against the enemy troops," Nanasawa relayed what he was seeing.

"Fighting? How?" Misato asked.

"They seem to be able to use the same powers as the enemy troops, those big explosions they can make," Nanasawa replied, his voice becoming more excited as more explosions tore through the ranks of the hostile figures. "We might be in with a chance Major!" All around him Nanasawa saw soldiers rushing back to their posts and starting to fire once again upon the black figures. Their attacks were still as fruitless as before, but Nanasawa didn't have the heart to tell them to cease fire, and stop them taking part in this heroic defence of the base.

The ground below the Captain shook violently all of a sudden, sending him sprawling on his back. As he sat back up, pushing his helmet away from where it had tipped forward over his eyes he saw the cause of this sudden tremor. A huge winged being was just in front of the ranks of pale figures driving back the oncoming enemy. It was an enemy Eva. It straightened itself up and raised its gargantuan sword above its head. The pale figures turned to look at this new threat as one, again all turning to point their palms at it simultaneously. Before the strange defenders could do anything however the Eva brought down the sword in a sweeping arc, digging into the earth and slicing through it across the ranks of the mysterious pale figures, strangely eliciting no screams of terror. The ground was churned up in a miniature tide of dirt and grass, scattering the grey-clad 'materials' leaving them lying injured or dead in the surrounding area. The Eva's lips seemed to curl back in a satisfied grin as it broke the line of defenders. It then turned its eyeless gaze upon the other pale-skinned figures still working to protect the Geofront.

"M-Major!" Nanasawa stammered into his radio, "an enemy Eva has reached out front line, it's tearing through the 'materials,' we need back up from Unit-02 immediately!"

"We'll see what we can do Captain," Misato replied, ending their brief conversation. Nanasawa continued staring in growing horror as the black Eva's mighty sword once again swept through the ranks of the pale figures, killing and injuring many, just as the black-skinned attackers rallied themselves to attack again.

"Reports coming from all over the Geofront, ma'am, the 'materials' are beginning to fight back against the attacking ground units," Hyuga informed his superior, desperately working to try and keep on top of the tidal wave of information bombarding his computer.

"That Eva is destroying the perimeter defence, if we don't stop it soon it'll punch a hole right through out defences," Aoba informed her.

"Contact Unit-02, tell Rei to get to the defenders as soon as possible and take out that Eva!" Misato barked.

"Reports coming in from Captain Fukumachi, he's running out of ammo, requests permission to withdraw back into the headquarters ma'am," Maya relayed the message.

'Dear God, this is descending into a blood bath,' Misato thought, gritting her teeth absent-mindedly. The holographic map in the centre of the room showed the ring of green dots that represented the defenders contracting slowly but gradually towards the pyramidal building in the centre, harassed on all sides by the enemy. A green arrow near the outskirts of the hemispherical cave indicated Unit-02 busily fighting off an MP Eva. Two other MP Eva's were lying prone somewhere between the two conflicts, they were down for now but Misato knew they'd be back up and fighting soon. 'In a situation like this it looks like only a miracle is going to save us,' she thought bitterly.

"M-Misato?" a quiet voice asked. Misato was surprised she even heard the weak voice over the din of computers and shouting technicians. She turned to slowly to locate its source. Eventually her eyes rested on a boy dressed in a typical school uniform standing on the Control Tower, his head looking down towards the floor.

"Shinji, what are you doing?" Misato asked, slightly shocked to see the boy again.

"M-Misato, I… I just wanted to…" he struggled to voice his thoughts. "Lately I've been feeling sad… r-really sad, and I don't know why. Earlier today, Maya, she said that-"

"Shinji, I don't have time for this now!" Misato shouted at him. 'What the hell does he want? He wanders in here while the Geofront is under attack, and he doesn't seem to care what's happening.'

"Wh-what?" Shinji responded, his eyes widening in shock at the woman's tone.

"I said now is not a good time Shinji," Misato repeated. "Unless you didn't notice the whole human race is this close to being destroyed. We're trying to save us. Rei's trying to save us! If you're not going to help then just go away!" The whole of Terminal Dogma seemed to go silent as the technicians and analysts present turned to watch the conversation between the Eva pilot and his guardian.

"I-"Shinji began, trying to think of something to say. "I see…" his voice trailed off, the boy's shoulders seemed to sag and he turned slowly and walked out of Terminal Dogma. The room remained silent for a few seconds after the boy's departure. Slowly realisation seemed to dawn on Misato, as if she had only just heard the conversation she had had with Shinji.

"Oh God..."

Gore and blood exploded as a rocket obliterated the upper arm of the MP Eva assaulting the fragile line of defenders. The creature turned to face its attacker, its eyeless head turning to look at Unit-02 racing across the green landscape of the Geofront towards it, rocket launcher in one hand, palette rifle in the other.

_"Frontline defence requires urgent back-up from Unit-02," _Maya had told Rei, causing the girl to spring immediately into action.

'This all depends on me,' Rei thought to herself, 'if I fail now then my life, and the life of all humans will be over.' Normal people would have been daunted by such a thought, but Rei knew the consequences of her failure, and the consequences of her success. "I shall prove that I exist," she whispered aloud.

The palette rifle flared into life as the red fighting machine squeezed its trigger. The Evangelion's opponent was ready though, and raised its sword with its remaining hand to block the incoming barrage, causing the bullets to ricochet off the blade harmlessly. Rei hadn't counted on the black Eva blocking her second attack and her mind raced to calculate her next move just as she saw her opponent shifting its grip on its sword and bringing it round in a counter-attack. Rei realised that at her current speed she couldn't stop in time to avoid the attack, so there was only one thing she could do. Unit-02 leapt forward, slamming its full weight into the black Eva. The defenders scattered as the two Eva's stumbled backwards, locked together. The black Eva's horizontal slash had instead turned into a bizarre hug of Unit-02 as the red Eva had sped up and got inside its opponents attack arc. The black Eva collapsed back against the surface of the pyramidal building, Unit-02 landing on top of it, pinning it down.

Rei realised that she had the advantage in this position, as Unit-02 was too close to the black Eva for its enemy to attack with its sword. She quickly discarded her weapons, realising they were useless at this range as well, and grabbed a prog knife from Unit-02's shoulder unit with its right arm. As Rei brought the knife round to stab into her opponent when once again something unexpected happened. It leant its head towards her, tilting it to the side, and bit her. The red lips of the Eva wrapped around Unit-02's face in some grotesque parody of a kiss as its teeth bit down on the sides of its head. The Eva's movements caused Unit-02 to miss with its strike and actually stab the knife into the Geofront, breaking through its reinforced surface. Danger warnings began to spring up all around the entry plug warning Unit-02's pilot of extreme stress to the head armour. All Rei could see through the external view screen was the horrible dark depths of the black Eva's mouth. And then that became obscured as cracks began to appear along the view as the Eva bit down harder on Unit-02's head causing the lenses on its four eyes to begin to shatter under the strain.

"Unit-02 is under close range attack from an enemy Eva!"

"The Geofront has been damaged!"

"Enemy ground units are breaking through our defences all over, the 'materials' can't hold them any longer."

"Downed enemy Eva's are beginning to re-activate," Hyuga reported, struggling to be heard over the cacophony of voices. "Ma'am," Hyuga began turning in his chair to face Major Katsuragi, "what do we do?"

Misato stood, seemingly dumbstruck as she watched the carnage unfold on the screen in front of her. She couldn't think, couldn't concentrate, all she could think of was how she had insulted and shouted at Shinji in a moment of frustration that was not his fault. "There's nothing we can do…" she said quietly.

"Ma'am!" Maya suddenly exclaimed, drawing all attention to her. "Unit-01 has activated!"

"What?" Misato asked incredulously, nearly sprinting over to the brown haired woman to look at the information that was displayed on her monitor.

"Pilot confirmed as Shinji Ikari… but it's heading further down into the Geofront, towards Central Dogma," Maya reported.

"Put me through to him immediately," Misato ordered urgently. Nearly instantly a holographic screen showing the determined looking tear-streaked face of Shinji Ikari within the entry plug of Unit-01. "Shinji, what are you doing?"

"I'm putting an end to this all," he answered.

"What are you talking about?" Misato asked. "Go to the catapults immediately, you need to help the defence of the Geofront!"

"No!" Shinji roared back, a disturbing look of anger on his face silenced his guardian. "If we beat this enemy, then what about the next, and the next? I'm going to be forced to pilot Eva until the day I die!"

"Shinji-"

"No, I won't do it anymore! The enemy must be here for Lilith that's all they could have come for… I'm going to finish this once and for all… I'm going to kill Lilith." The whole of Terminal Dogma went silent at the boy's announcement of his plans, and the determination in his voice.

"Unit-01 has reached Heaven's Gate," Maya reported, her voice slightly shaky.

"Put me through to Pilot Ikari," a voice boomed through the room. All eyes turned to look at the figure of Gendo Ikari atop the control tower. "Now!" he ordered. Again another holographic image of the brown haired pilot of Unit-01 appeared in front of the commander of NERV. "Pilot Ikari," he began, with a strange tone in his usual emotionless voice, "I order you to cease your actions immediately."

"No!" Shinji shouted again. "I won't listen to you ever again. I'll never pilot Eva ever again, this is my last action as an Eva pilot. I'll make sure no one has to worry about Third Impact, from the Angels, or from you!"

"Cut power to Unit-01," Gendo ordered immediately.

"Yes sir," Maya replied, quickly entering in commands into her console. "Sir, Unit-01 isn't responding," she turned round to report.

"What?" he questioned her. "Increase Entry Plug LCL pressure to maximum."

"Sir, Unit-01 isn't accepting any commands," the technician informed him.

Gendo's expression seemed to change, his emotionless mask breaking down. "Shinji, do not do this," he forced the words out, worry clearly evident in his voice. "Shinji, I am your father, I am telling you not to do this!"

Shinji's visage on the screen stared back at him, a mask of rage and contempt. "I have no father."

Rei struggled to free herself from the Eva's grip, but its remaining arm was wrapped tight around Unit-02, and its jaws continued to close around Unit-02's face. Another lens shattered, blinding Unit-02 in another eye, as Rei desperately tried to wrench the prog knife out of the Geofront. Rei cried out in pain as her enemy's teeth broke through armour and dug into the flesh beneath. The prog knife was finally removed from the Geofront and Rei quickly jammed it into her attacker's head, desperate to relieve herself from the pain. The glowing blade quickly cut through the Eva's head, slicing its bottom jaw clean off.

Blood sprayed out of the creature's wound onto Unit-02's face as the red Eva finally managed to free itself from its grip. The black Eva struggled to get up, its tongue hanging uselessly below its mouth through the gap where its bottom jaw used to be, blood pouring out of the wound down the creatures neck and chest. Rei took the opportunity to shift her grip on her prog knife and slam it up through the exposed roof of the Eva's mouth and into its brain, causing it to squirm briefly against the Geofront before slumping down to the buildings base.

The black Eva was down, but not out, Rei knew, but she had to make sure the other Eva's were incapacitated before she tried to finish any off. She turned to survey the Geofront just in time to see a grey Lance of Longinus streaking towards her, but far, far too late to do anything about it. The pain seemed to slow everything down as the twin prongs pierced through Unit-02's shoulder, the force of the strike carrying the red Eva through the air with the lance until it slammed into the side of NERV headquarters. The Lance sunk deep into the pyramidal building, and through Unit-02, pinning it against the building just as Rei had done to her previous opponent. Before Rei even had a chance to scream out in pain another Lance slammed into Unit-02's left shoulder, pinning that against the reinforced surface of NERV headquarters as well.

Rei cried out in pain, instinctively hugging her shoulders in some futile effort to relieve the torment. She opened up one pain-blurred eye to stare out across the Geofront. The hideous grinning forms of the three MP Eva's took to the air and began soaring leisurely towards her. Beside her the jaw-less Eva she had just defeated stirred, pushing itself back upright, the sword in its hand twisting into another Lance. It turned to look towards her and if the thing had eyes Rei would have sworn she saw her death in them.

'I've failed.' Rei closed her eyes as tears began to sting them.

Waves of LCL exploded over the artificial shores of Central Dogma as the massive door known as Heaven's Gate landed in the orange sea. The purple form of Unit-01 stood in the entrance raising the palette rifle in its arms to aim at the white being crucified in the centre of the room.

The constant humming of power coursing through the Eva and Shinji's nervous heavy breathing were the only sounds to be heard inside the entry plug. The cursor on the screen slowly made its way up the form of the white figure until it stopped over the creature's chest. Shinji's shaking finger hovered over the trigger.

"Is this really what you want to do?" a voice asked, from somewhere deep within the Eva.

"Yes… this is what I want to do."

"Then do it."

He pulled the trigger.

Rei expected death, she expected a searing pain in her chest as the mutilated Eva stabbed its Lance through Unit-02, snuffing out her life in one agonising instant. What happened next chilled her even more than that thought. She heard howling.

She dared to open one crimson eye and stare out at the Geofront once more. Just to her left the black Eva emitted a guttural howl from its ruined mouth. The other three were circling just below the exit, shouting out similar unearthly howls. All across the Geofront the jet-black people were throwing their arms in the air and wailing and weeping. Rei did not know what was happening, but it disturbed her. She watched in pain-wracked fascination as the airborne Eva Units began to circle higher and higher, before peeling off one by one to fly up and out of the gaping hole in the ceiling of the Geofront.

The injured black Eva reached over and, grasping both Lances still impaling Unit-02, wrenched them both out simultaneously. Rei cried out in agony again, arching her back and clawing at her shoulders so hard that her fingers dug into her skin. Unit-02 slid down to collapse against the sloped surface of NERV headquarters. Rei looked up again to see the last black Eva staring down at her, a grey Lance in either hand, before it turned and departed after its brethren.

"You idiot!" Gendo Ikari roared as his gloved fist connected with his son's cheek. Shinji Ikari cried out in pain before falling to the metal floor of Central Dogma. "Do you have any idea what you have just done!?" the bearded man shouted at his son, gesturing to the now bullet ridden corpse of Lilith hanging upon the cross in the centre of the room.

"I saved us!" Shinji replied, getting to his feet as a thin trickle of blood began to make its way out of the corner of his mouth.

"Saved us?" Gendo asked incredulously. He turned to stare at the dead creature in the centre of the room. 'Yui…' the word rang through his mind, accompanied with a great feeling of sadness. He turned and pulled back his fist to strike out at his son again.

"Stop this!" Misato cried out, jumping between the two just as the Commander of NERV lashed out again. This time his punch caught the purple haired Major in the face, sending her sprawling down onto the ground. Gendo looked down at the woman with contempt in his eyes, disgusted that she would protect such a worthless person as his son.

"The Angel doesn't need Lilith to obtain victory," Gendo explained with barely restrained anger, "once it realises that it can use Unit-01 it will be back, and that won't take it long."

"Staying here won't solve any problems Ikari," Fuyutsuki informed his Commander from behind the fuming man. The tall man's hands dropped to his sides and clenched and unclenched for a brief few seconds before he spoke.

"You are correct Fuyutsuki, we should adjourn to see what we can salvage from this situation," he spoke calmly, his face returning to its usual emotionless mask. He turned towards the exit and strode out of the colossal room. Shinji stood silently for a few more seconds, just staring into the distance.

"Shinji, I think you did the right thing," Misato told him quietly, sitting on the ground her hand pressed to her bruised cheek. "If you hadn't destroyed Lilith… Rei and everyone else would have been dead by now." Shinji glared at her out of the corner of his eye.

_"I said now is not a good time Shinji,"_

"Don't speak to me," he told her, "ever again." He turned and left, he never looked back so he didn't see his guardian curl up on the floor and begin to weep.

"Rei? Come in Rei," Maya Ibuki's voice echoed around the entry plug.

Rei Ayanami sat huddled on the control seat, a small whimpering coming from her as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Rei?" Maya's worried voice asked. "Rei, you can come back now… it's over."

"Reports indicate we suffered sixty percent casualties of defenders, seventy percent of the 'materials' were also lost. Unit-02 has suffered severe damage to both shoulders, leaving both arms inoperable, and also damage to the head," Fuyutsuki told his commander. "Engineers report that the damage will take at least four days to repair."

"I doubt we will have four days," Gendo intoned grimly, "we will be fortunate to have more than twenty-four hours. Order the engineer's to focus on just one arm."

"Even if we do get Unit-02 partially operational again Dr. Akagi estimates our chances of success are point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero seven percent."

"So we will probably all die, along with the entire human race," Gendo summarised.

"It appears the prophecy's course may be changed, but its results cannot," Fuyutsuki agreed.

"Victory is not quite out of our grasp yet, however," his Commander said calmly.

"Oh?"

"There is still one last chance. The prophecy, it claims Tabris must imbue all of himself into Lilith in order to cause Third Impact, correct?"

"Yes… I think I remember it saying that," Fuyutsuki replied, wondering what his superior was thinking of.

"Reports from the Choshi conflict say that it took a few seconds for a 'possessed' person to begin to move again. Therefore is it not reasonable to assume that Tabris must familiarise itself with the workings of a body before it takes complete control?"

"That seems plausible."

"So if an Eva was possessed its pilot would have a few seconds in order to make one final action?"

"Ye-" Fuyutsuki suddenly stopped as he realised what the Commander was suggesting. "But, you know Shinji would never pilot it again willingly… and he most certainly wouldn't do that."

"Then we shall have to find a way to make him."

Shinji Ikari lay in the small uncomfortable bed facing the cold grey wall in the cell-like room that was now his home.

_"If you need to talk to her, I'm sure she'll find some time-"_

_"You've just doomed us!"_

_"I don't have time for this now!"_

_"Is this really what you want to do?"_

_"Take him to Unit-01's Eva cage, immediately."_

_"Everybody has the right to choose."_

_"Who cares? It's not like they like you, do they Shinji?"_

_"I'll never be happy,"_

Shinji's eyes shot open wide as he felt something brush up against him in bed. It felt cool and rubbery, like the fabric of a plug suit.

"…Ayanami?" he questioned, about to turn to face this intruder when he heard a quiet voice.

"Please Shinji," Rei spoke quietly as she felt him stir next to him. "I nearly died today… I was… scared."

Shinji opened his mouth to speak, but he could think of no words to say. Shinji and Rei lay back to back in the small bed, they each pulled the thin sheets further around themselves and tried to get some sleep.

****

End of the Sixth Day

Authors Notes:

I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. I mean I never meant for this chapter to take… what, nine months to finish? I have to say University has been a much bigger strain on my life than I thought it to be. But I got this chapter finished in the end. I had the BIGGEST case of writer's block ever when I tried to start writing this, which slowed down work on it again. But now that only one chapter remains I will definitely get Genesis Crisis finished. It may take a while, but I'll do it.

Thanks once again go to Laval, and also to Char who chipped in with the pre-reading on this one and flattered me with lots of badly spelled words saying how great this chapter was. :-P Thanks to everyone on Evamade.com, who have been great fun this past year or so, and also to Puddle of LCL who was kind of the person who sparked me off to finish this, by calling it "Non-Shit"… charmed I'm sure.

The biggest thanks of all go to you… yes you! For reading this, and if you just so happen to have reviewed this in the past, or been waiting all these nine months with baited breath for chapter 6, then even bigger thanks to you as well. I know this chapter won't be worth waiting nine months for, but I hope you like it nonetheless.

Again, I'll definitely get Chapter 7 done eventually, and you'll be able to see the climactic end I've been building up to all the way through this story.

Oh and if you just so happen to have "Qui Tollis Pecata Mundi" by J.S. Bach on your PC then if you could listen to it and read the bit where Rei gets lanced again that'd make me really happy, since it's what I was listening to when I wrote it.


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